The Hero's Way Back
by JustMyLuckiness
Summary: Emma's been found alive, but under a Sleeping Curse and a magical barrier. Regina, Henry and the Charmings have time to get her out and wake her up, right? Maybe not with old enemies resurfacing alongside surprising allies. Part 2 of The Hero's Way Series, follows The Hero's Way Out.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello again, everyone! I'm back with the second installment of The Hero's Way. Thank you to everyone for the fantastic response to my first story! It was far beyond anything I had ever envisioned. I hope you enjoy Part 2 just as much!  
**

 **As usual, I don't claim ownership of the show, its characters, settings, or canon plot lines. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.**

 **Laurathechef has been instrumental in making this story good enough for your eyes.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The creaking sound of wood grinding on wood sounded throughout the hushed living room. Swinging back and forth in the gliding chair as she watched the snow falling outside, her thoughts turned to concern that her husband and grandson – she still winced whenever she used that word in relation to Henry – would make it home safely from their errand.

She snorted into the near-silence at the irony of Snow White watching white snow falling by the inch. Winters in Maine were far harsher than they were back in the Enchanted Forest, but sitting in a warm room and watching the snow fall still held the same magical appeal. At least, it would have had the snow weighing down branches and powerlines outside mirrored the twin weights of guilt and shame pushing her own shoulders and spirits down.

Coming back from the realization that Emma was so depressed that she felt the only way out was to put herself under a Sleeping Curse had been a long road. Her daughter's letter to Archie had disguised it with a noble-sounding message about saving the town, but the pain oozing from every letter screamed Emma's real plea.

Never in her entire life had she felt so much a failure as the first time she laid eyes on her daughter lying in a cage under a barrier spell. A barrier spell of her own creation, realizing that even under a Sleeping Curse there were those than would exploit her. Knowing that Emma felt abandoned enough that a cursed sleep was her best chance struck at every ideal she held of herself as a mother. Granted, she hadn't actually been a mother until Neal, but it was still a blow to her sense of self. She failed her daughter. Again. Both in their friendship from before the curse broke and now their parent-child relationship. The signs were all there and she'd missed them all. Worse than that, she had added to Emma's burden. She'd behaved abominably toward Emma during her daughter's moment of crisis, and inadvertently helped push her over the edge.

It was that heavy burden that drove her. Sleep had become a fond memory while eating became an activity she did only when her body demanded food to keep going. She was less than useless when it came to helping figure out how to break a barrier spell, so she turned her energies to being the acting Mayor.

The sound of the door swinging open startled her out of her thoughts. David and Henry tromped in, stamping the snow off their boots just inside the front door on the rug, having shaken the rest clear on the porch. David hung their coats while Henry went to change his clothes. Snow shook her head free of her bleak thoughts and made her own way into the kitchen. She fished out a small pot and started heating some water for cocoa, buying herself some time to organize her thoughts.

With Henry upstairs, David approached her at the stove. "Are things settling down out there now that our friends from Arendelle have gone home?" she asked her husband

David gave her a dry laugh. "For the most part they are."

She frowned. "For the most part?"

"Well, everything is basically back to normal," he hedged, moving over to check on the supply of snacks they'd left in the pantry for whomever was on watcher duty. As much as he didn't like it, Neal was spending a great deal of time getting to know his Aunt Ruby while they were dealing with affairs at the farmhouse. It wasn't a great idea to have a baby outside in a Maine winter, either.

"Basically," Snow answered in flat tone, telling him without saying so that she wasn't interested in any word games that evening.

"Gold is gone," David answered with a sigh, "Belle banished him over the town line when he tried to use Hook to cast enough of a spell to break himself free from his dagger. Hook has disappeared, too. Tinkerbell came to the station to report him missing this morning."

Her eyes grew wide. "Gold is gone? The guy with some vague, unknown reason for needing our daughter's magic is missing?"

He nodded. "I know, I know. We've been trying to find him, but nothing's worked yet."

"Wonderful," she muttered, stirring the water.

"How's she doing?" David asked.

Now it was her turn to sigh. "No change," she responded, moving to take out three packs of cocoa and the cinnamon. When she slid his mug over, their eyes met and they shared a sad smile.

Henry's footsteps announced his approach. "Hot chocolate! Yeah!" he exulted.

Snow pursed her lips, appreciating the ability of youth to be distracted from tragedy in life's simple joys. For a quiet few minutes the small family, only half-complete, enjoyed the brief bubble of happiness afforded in that moment. Shaking off the nagging thought of who was missing, she vowed to enjoy whatever moments she could with her family.

Charming cleared his throat, popping her bubble. When he didn't say anything after that, she looked over at him. His eyes kept shifting back and forth from her to Henry, who wore a pensive look, brows furrowed in concentration. "Henry? Is everything okay?" she asked, keeping her voice gentle.

"Well, I've been trying to figure something out, but I'm not getting anywhere. Do you think I could ask you guys about it?" the teenager answered, putting his mug down.

"Of course, Henry! You know you can ask us anything," David replied, setting his own mug on the table to devote his full attention to his grandson. Snow supposed it was his nature to be a leader coming out in his obvious desire to be a role model for the impressionable teen in front of them. Somehow the man kept finding new ways to surprise her.

"Well, I know what Emma did, I just don't know why she did it. I never got to read that letter of hers, and neither you nor my Mom will tell me what was in it," he shrugged, "I guess I'm just trying to understand why she put herself under a sleeping curse in a cage and surrounded by a barrier spell."

Snow and David made eye contact again, trying to figure out a way to answer him. She nodded, silently giving him permission to begin. "We can't tell you what was in the letter, Henry. It's your mother's private words. Telling you would be violating that, and I can't…we can't do that."

"Can you give me an idea, though?" he persisted.

This time Snow answered. "You saw kids get bullied in school, right?" When Henry nodded, she plunged ahead, voice breaking with the realities of what she was saying. "Your mother suffered a lot as a child. Both in school and in her foster homes. Sometimes scars like that never really go away, we just learn to ignore them. Right after your mother got back from the past with Marian, a lot of really bad things happened that reopened those scars. None of us were doing anything on purpose, but somehow we all managed to hurt her. She was in a lot of pain," Snow paused as tears overflowed her eyes and ran their courses down her cheeks. When she tried to continue, her voice choked so much she was unable to speak.

Henry's eyes were glistening, but he remained stock-still, refusing to allow the emotion to overwhelm him.

David took over. "Emma was in a lot of pain, but none of us could see it. She's unfortunately had to learn to be very good at hiding behind her walls, not showing anything to anyone that she doesn't want to allow in. When I think about why she got that good at hiding her emotions, it just makes me so sick," he had to take a pause of his own, along with a deep breath to regain his composure, "We all failed her, Henry. Every single one of us. Eventually the pain got to be too much for her. Add in the fact that Gold and Ingrid each wanted her powers for their own purposes, and Emma felt trapped. She though that the two of them would tear the town apart to get to her, so she decided to make it so that neither of them could hurt anyone to get to her. The barrier spell is so strong it flung Regina across the room. She said that somehow Emma must have gained so much control over her magic that she was able to tap into its full potential. Not even Gold could break it, she thought."

Pride shone out of Henry's troubled face. "So she thought that by putting herself under the Sleeping Curse and hiding her magic, no one would find her. No one could break the spell to wake her, and no one would get to hurt her again. Spending eternity in that fiery room was better than living here with us?" he asked, voice quavering at the end as he allowed his sense of hurt and betrayal to seep into his tone.

Finding her voice again in the face of his anguish, Snow wrapped her arms around the boy, trying to take some of that pain away. "We can't answer that, Henry. She must have thought that it was better than killing herself or leaving Storybrooke. At least this way we have a chance of waking her up. When I think of all the times we've failed her throughout her life, it breaks my heart. There's nothing we want more than to wake her up and start making everything up to her. We just have to keep trying," she promised.

"She's my mom and I won't give up on her either," Henry declared as he folded his arms.

Snow and David both smiled at him. "Good always triumphs," she affirmed, "We just have to have faith in each other."

"I will," the youth promised.

Snow smiled at his positivity before setting her face in a serious expression. "Henry, your grandpa and I need to go talk to Belle. She sent the Dark One over the town line, and we might need her help to figure out from his books what we could do to help Emma."

"Will you be able to handle things here?" David chimed in.

"I'll do what I can," the teenager promised with a nod.

"If you can't, no one can," Snow agreed, pressing him into a hug and giving him a kiss on his forehead. She had to raise up on her tiptoes to do it, a reminder of the changes he was going through as well.

Henry hugged the two of them goodbye before turning back into the house.

* * *

Trudging down the stairs, Henry took in the scene that had become commonplace over the past few weeks. Emma lay exactly where she was when they'd found her, unmoving under her barrier spell's dome. The feeble light from a small reading lamp bathed the room in a sickly orange glow, except for the faintly pulsing blueish light from the spell. Cobwebs littered the ceiling, making him duck a couple times on his way down the stairs. The boards creaked at the bottom, making him shift away from the loose areas, as foolish as he realized it was.

Seeing his mother under the same Sleeping Curse he'd suffered made his stomach clench, knowing the pain she was suffering in the fire room. The thought triggered a memory from weeks before, when he had one of his increasingly rare nightmares and Aurora was there. She'd pointed to the shadowy figure in the room. He didn't know it was his mother at the time, a fact which drove his guilt every day she remained in her cursed sleep. Knowing there wasn't anything he could do about it was no help. She'd saved him from his own sleeping curse, so being unable to do the same for her ate at his sense of right.

Looking around the basement, nothing had changed from the last time he came down the stairs. With a sigh, Henry glanced at his other sleeping mother. "Come on, Mom. It's time to go," he urged in a gentle voice, shaking her shoulder.

Regina startled before lifting her head and blinking the haziness out of her eyes and gazing at him like she'd never seen him before. "Henry? When did you get here?" she asked.

He gave her a wan smile. "Just a few minutes ago. Fall asleep again?"

"No, no. I was just resting my eyes," she protested, even though they both knew it for the lie it was, "I thought I was getting close earlier today, but it didn't work. Just like all the others."

Henry pursed his lips. "How about we go upstairs and get some food? You need a break after being down here all day."

She shook her head. "I can't afford to take a break, Henry. Every second I don't spend on figuring out how to break Emma's barrier spell is another second she spends in the cursed sleep. She needs me to be at my best."

"And you're not right now," he chided, treading a fine line, "You're falling asleep amongst every magic book you own, scanning every spell, not eating, not getting a good night's sleep, I could go on. If you want to be at your best, let's take a break, go upstairs and get some food and sleep in a real bed," Henry pleaded.

"Did your grandparents put you up to this?" she asked with narrowed eyes, deflecting his question.

Frowning, Henry moved closer and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We're all worried about you, Mom. You haven't done anything for the last six weeks except eat when you're on the point of passing out, and you only sleep when you do pass out. I've spent more nights at Grams' and Gramps' than I have at our house. I just want you to take care of yourself, Mom."

She almost broke. He could see the wavering resolve in her eyes, but in the end she shook her head clear of the doubts. "I can't. I'm sorry. I'll use my magic and get some food down here, and I promise I'll take a nap, but I can't leave her, Henry."

He nodded, expecting nothing less. She'd been working nearly nonstop since they'd found Emma, trying to break the spell. If it wasn't for Ruby and the dwarves threatening to literally drag her out of the basement, she would have missed Thanksgiving and Christmas. "How about you come upstairs, magic up some food for both of us, and take a nap in a real bed or even on the couch?"

"Henry Daniel Mills! I'm taking care of myself," his mother promised. She snapped her fingers, causing purple smoke to surround them.

When it cleared, Henry saw a simple meal of grilled chicken sandwiches and French fries with two diet colas on the table in front of them. "Mom?" he asked, hesitating to take a seat next to her.

A shrug. "I know I could use the calories," she answered, "But I can't leave her here. I need to figure this out, Henry. I owe it to her. So my compromise is to share a meal down here, and then I'll keep slogging through these books."

With a sad smile, Henry joined her at the table for dinner, knowing that as soon as he left, she would dive right back into her books.

* * *

Regina watched her son leave after the food and conversation had run dry. The sense of emptiness when he left her always seemed overwhelming, but she had a task that would serve as a distraction from those feelings. Setting her teeth, she turned to get back to her task, but with her fatigue it wasn't long before the words started blurring in front of her eyes.

She tried to clear her mind by rubbing her eyes and leaning back in the office chair she'd teleported down for her comfort, but her brain refused to cooperate. Turning her gaze to the woman she was working so hard to save, Regina blew out a sigh. "What am I going to do with you, Emma Swan? If I could take everything back and let you grow up in the life you were born to, well, I don't know if I would, The Curse gave me Henry, but it kills me that to get my happiness you had to lose yours."

Emma remained still.

"I've been seeing you in my dreams, you know," Regina admitted, feeling more at ease talking to sleeping Emma than she ever would have with the blonde awake, "well, you probably don't, but I still am. I see the moment you prick your finger, over and over and over. Every single time I'm screaming and trying to get you to stop, but something about this damned barrier spell blocks even my voice."

She stood up, stretching her back with a groan. "You almost certainly can't hear a word I'm saying. I don't even know why I'm talking to you, Miss Swan. Emma," she repeated in an apologetic voice, "Maybe Henry was right, and I'm spending too much time down here. I just can't get over the guilt. I am the root cause of every bad thing that has ever happened to you, and I don't know how to get over that."

Abandoning her spell books for the moment, Regina paced a slow circle around Emma's cage. The lock taunted her, close enough to almost touch, but behind the barrier spell it might as well have been in the Enchanted Forest. "I'm sure if you were awake to see this, you'd get a kick out of me talking to myself, walking around you, and utterly powerless to do anything about it. I can just see that little smirk of yours as you fold your arms in that god-awful read leather jacket," she choked a bit at the image, swallowing hard on a lump in her throat that refused to go away.

Hand to her head to help regain her bearings, Regina fought back a sob. "And there is nothing except Henry that I would not give to be able to see that smirk again. I know why you said you did this, but I need to hear it from your own mouth, Emma. I need to know what possessed you to think that this was your only way out. You can't leave like this. You can't leave Henry, or your parents, or even me this way!"

As if realizing the absurdity of her situation, Regina shook her head clear of her ramblings and sighed, shoulders slumping inward. Without another word, she went back to the desk and turned her book open to the last spell she had read.

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 **A/N: Thoughts? Reviews, comments, constructive criticism are always appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed this story of mine. This story will focus on Regina as much as the last centered around Emma, so I hope I can keep getting her emotions and voice down.  
**

 **As before, Laurathechef worked magic getting this ready for you to read. I claim no ownership of the show, situations, characters, or plotlines. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.**

 **Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there! Hope you had a wonderful day to rest and enjoy your families.**

 **I wanted to get this chapter uploaded earlier, but relatives visiting over the weekend changed a lot of plans. Here it is now, though!**

* * *

"Why did we decide to walk over here?" Charming grumbled, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets and trying to burrow further into his coat. One thing he'd missed out on by spending 28 years in a coma was acclimating to Maine winters. Snow looked positively radiant among the falling snow, he snorted at the irony, while he felt like the chill went right down to his bones.

"Because we could both use the exercise since Neal was born, and it's not that bad outside," his wife chided with a gentle smile.

He grunted. "Yeah, but it is January in Maine. The Enchanted Forest never had winters like this."

She softened. "We'll pick you up a warmer coat," Snow promised.

Thanking her with a smile, he pulled the library door open, holding it for Snow to enter the library before him. She rewarded him with a small smile, but as with every time since they'd found out about Emma's actions, it was missing almost all its usual warmth. A pang shot down his spine at the sight. Snow was a shadow of her former self, with only her drive to help Regina get through Emma's barrier spell and wake their daughter up keeping her going at times.

"Thank you," she said, slipping past him into the silent building.

The random thought that popped into his head stuck with him as they went inside and he saw just how quiet it really was. Belle appeared to be the only person in the building until he saw Ruby studying a scroll at the far corner of the main desk. The librarian was examining a book of her own, oblivious to the periodic glances Ruby kept throwing her way. Frowning, Charming tried to figure out the subtext, but with a shake of his head, he re-focused on their primary reason for being there. "Belle?" he asked in a quiet voice, not wanting to startle either of the women.

"Oh! Sorry, David. I didn't see you come in," Belle apologized after a slight startle at his voice. When she continued, he noticed a tremor in her voice and a suspicious shine to her eyes that belied a level of emotional turmoil. Given how she'd sent the love of her life over the town line, it was more than understandable. "We were just studying some manuscripts for possible ways to break through Emma's barrier."

Snow moved around him, approaching the desk. "Oh, thank you, Belle. We actually came here to talk to you about something different," she explained.

Ruby's attention, shifted from the scroll at their intrusion, zeroed in on them. "What's going on, guys?"

"How are you doing with everything?" David chimed in. "You've been helping us so much with Emma that we're a little worried about how you've handled things with Rumpelstiltskin."

Belle pushed her lips together in a flat line and nodded. "It's been hard. Nights are the worst. When I'm used to reaching out for him and he's not there, it's so discouraging. Helping you guys with Emma has been a wonderful distraction. Ruby's been a rock, too. She's been here every day, helping to cheer me up when I got down." She smiled for the first time since they'd arrived, sliding her hand atop the Ruby's and giving it a soft squeeze.

For the briefest moment, David saw a look of pure anguish flash through Ruby's eyes before she schooled her face into a cheerful mask and smiled back at Belle. Suddenly the looks he'd noticed approaching the desk made sense, and he felt a pang of sympathy for the waitress.

"Anyway," Belle went on, returning her attention to her visitors, "with Rumple banished over the town line, things have calmed down quite a bit. I have the chance to be my own woman for once. Not who my father tells me to be and not 'the Dark One's girl', so once I get over the loss, I'm sure I'll start having more fun than I've ever had in my life," she said with a weak grin, but at least it approached her eyes.

Ruby moved to distract from the heavily emotional moment. "How's Regina doing with the barrier spell?"

With a sigh, Snow shifted from one foot to another. "No progress yet. She thought she had a way through it earlier, but Emma must have really mastered her magic when she made this decision, because nothing Regina can do can even scratch it."

Belle grimaced. "I had no idea Emma had that much control over her magic."

"None of us did," David replied, "We all thought that Regina was the stronger. With Regina unable to break the spell, we're just not sure how to proceed."

Ruby leaned forward. "We have technology here that wasn't available in the old world. Is there anything we have here that might help at least get her out of that basement? If she was somewhere a little more accessible or familiar, wouldn't that help?"

Snow looked thoughtful. "It might. That's not an idea we've had yet. Charming, don't the dwarves have a backhoe or something like that?"

"They might, but to get down to Emma we'd have to knock the whole house down first. I know that barrier spell is strong, but I'd want to get Regina's confirmation that we could do that without endangering Emma," he answered, rubbing his face.

"She is the expert," Snow agreed.

The other women shared a look before Ruby chuckled. "Times change. Would any of us have ever thought thirty years ago that we'd be sitting here talking about trusting Regina with a question of your daughter's safety?"

Snow's eyes got very round. "I never thought of it that way! I've spent so much time thinking of her as the Evil Queen, but now she's just Regina. We have so much tortured history, but that's all it is: history. It's been changing since the curse broke, but I think Neverland was the turning point. We were all working together to save Henry. That's when she became Regina to me, instead of the Evil Queen."

"And now she's helping us rescue our daughter," Charming finished. "She's family."

"Speaking of Regina," Belle interjected, "Do you think Regina would be willing to come out of that basement and come take a look through Rumple's books? I've been through them, but I'm not a magical expert and some of these are in languages I've never seen. I can't exactly Google-translate them, either."

A smile dawned bright and clear across Snow's face. "That's perfect! I've been trying to get her out of the basement in the daytime for a couple weeks now, but she's resisted. Even Henry couldn't convince her to leave."

"She's almost as pale as Snow here," Charming chimed in, "even during winters here in Maine, that's saying something."

Giving her husband a mock glare, Snow slugged his arm. "He's not wrong. I want to get Emma out of that sleep more than anything else, but after so long, I know she's safe. She wouldn't want Regina to waste away trying to break her magic, either."

"What about suggesting Henry sit with Emma while Regina's at the pawn shop?" Ruby offered. "If she knows Emma's safe – and we all know Henry wouldn't let anything happen to her – that might help her be more comfortable with leaving."

"That's a wonderful idea!" Belle exclaimed. "Tell Regina I'll be waiting in the shop for her."

Snow and David nodded in unison. "I'll do that," she promised.

* * *

Henry walked down the stairs into the farmhouse's basement with his grandparents following, bracing his steps against the added weight of his backpack. No matter how many times he came down those stairs, the same heaviness settled in his chest. He couldn't say whether it was the evil Zelena concocted in its dank corners or the knowledge that his birth mother now rested there under a cursed sleep she chose for herself that caused the feeling. Either way he never liked going down there.

What he found at the bottom took him by surprise. Instead of poring through book after book in a feverish haze or standing off in a corner testing out another spell, his adoptive mother was asleep at the table, face down on a tattered leather cover. He smiled at the sight, knowing how hard she'd been working. Walking slowly up to her, Henry started calling her name in ever-increasing volume. "Mom?"

She jumped awake when he was a few feet away still. Looking around wildly for a moment, her eyes cleared when she saw him. "Oh, Henry! You scared me."

"Sorry, Mom," he apologized, "But I came down here to get you out of this basement for a little while."

Deflating in on herself, she shook her head. "I can't do that. I need to keep working on a breaking spell."

"That's actually why we're here," Snow interrupted, moving to stand next to Henry, "Belle found some books of Rumpelstiltskin's that she thinks might have something in them, but she can't translate them. She figured that since you were his star pupil you would be able to make sense of the words."

Henry watched as his mother set her jaw. "I can't!" she protested, eyes turning frantic even as a tremor in her voice betrayed her fatigue, "I need to keep working on how to get Emma out of there! I'm the only one who stands a chance of breaking that spell without killing her."

"That's exactly why we're suggesting this. With the Dark One and Ingrid gone and none of this town's white magic users able to break the barrier spell, she's as physically safe as can be in that bubble," Charming answered, putting a comforting hand on Snow's shoulder as he joined the conversation, "But if it will make you feel better about leaving, Henry can stay here and do his homework."

"But -," Regina started to argue before Snow cut in.

"No buts. We'll even stay upstairs, so you know Henry will be safe," she promised.

The speed with which the bluster fled her was a testament to how exhausted she'd gotten. She slumped over, nodding wordlessly before running her hands through her hair in an attempt to flatten out the rat's nest that had piled up during her nap. "Okay. Fine. I'll go look at Rumple's books to see if he has a solution. Wouldn't surprise me a bit, the sneaky bastard," she snorted before her eyebrows shot up to her hairline as she realized her slip. Her fearful eyes turned to Henry as Snow and Charming tried to contain their chuckles.

He grinned. "It's okay, mom. I've heard Emma say way worse."

With a growl, she turned and started moving toward the sleeping woman on the other side of the room. "I knew it. When I get her out of that spell I'm going to give her a piece of my mind!"

Before she could charge the barrier spell, Snow and Charming lunged forward and grabbed her arms, swinging her around to the stairs. "If you could get through the spell, we wouldn't need to do this, would we?" Snow sassed.

Regina protested the whole way up the stairs, but knowing there was a chance to find a spell to break the barrier had taken any real bite out of her fight. When the door closed, Henry turned back to the desk and dropped his backpack heavily on the table. He flopped back into the chair and looked at his birth mother's still form.

The heaviness settled into his chest again. Knowing that she had felt so much pain and hopelessness that the only solution to her problems felt like an anchor weighing his heart down in his chest.

"God, ma," he breathed, "What was going on? How did I miss it?"

The sleeping woman didn't stir.

Henry stood, walking over to the line they'd drawn around the extent of Emma's barrier spell, irrelevant though it was; that somehow the people of Storybrooke had a growing expertise in tracing the boundary of magical force fields. "I just wish I had seen the signs."

Voicing the thought gave clarity to what had been muddled. "No, that's not true. They were all there, I just didn't put anything together at the time. You're always so guarded with your emotions, but I thought I was one of the only ones you showed your real feelings to. I guess there are some things you couldn't share with anyone else." Hearing his words out loud drove home the solitary desperation his mother must have felt. "Oh, crap, ma! When I think about how alone you must have felt….I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't see enough to do anything. I know what you're suffering right now in that room. If there was anything I could do to take that away from you, to be the one in that room again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. You were the one that Aurora and I saw. You were the one in the corner, protected by the fiery wall. I have no idea how you even knew to cast a spell to protect yourself in a cursed sleep, but you did it. When Mom figures it out, she's going to be insanely jealous."

Barking out a laugh of pure exasperation, Henry looked down. "Actually, I really want to see that happen. I want to see you get out of there. I want us to be a family again. I hate seeing Mom wasting away, trying to fix this, to get you out. I don't want to lose either of my mom's ever again. When we finally wake you up – and I promise we will; it's my latest operation and you know those always work out – there are going to be a lot of people really mad at you for doing this, but I think we'll all be just so relieved to have you back that we'll forgive you."

His voice broke toward the end of the last sentence as the thought that there was a fairly decent chance they might never get through the barrier spell to even have the opportunity to wake her. When he continued, the tears that had threatened to overflow his eyes finally broke free and tracked down his cheeks. "I just want to know why. Why were you so miserable that putting yourself to sleep seemed like the only option left? I wasn't allowed to read your letter, but…why, mom?

"I don't even know how you thought of all these redundant protections, but it's impressive. Just know this: I will beat them all. I will figure out a way to get through to you and wake you up. I swear on Dad's grave, I will save you this time. It's finally time for someone else to save the Savior, and when I do, this whole town is going to show you just how much you're loved and missed. You'll never doubt your worth again. I promise you, mom."

Henry wiped his cheeks and sat back at the desk. After taking a blank notebook out of his bag, he started brainstorming ideas for how to defeat a force field from his comic books, homework long forgotten.

* * *

Up the stairs, Snow laid her head on her husband's chest as her own shook with sobs. They'd opened the door to bring some food down to Henry, but having heard his heartfelt speech, chose not to interrupt. They'd heard every word.

Henry was right: they all had a mission now to make their broken family whole again. Looking up, Snow met Charming's watery gaze. "We've done nothing but fail our daughter her entire life, David. When we get her woken up, we will never fail her again."

He nodded, unable to speak past the emotions choking his throat. "Never again," he was finally able to grunt.

* * *

Meanwhile, just on the other side of the barrier protecting Storybrooke, Rumpelstiltskin stood beside a garish automobile with two women. Two very angry women.

"You better not have dragged us out here to the middle of nowhere without a damn good reason, Dark One," Cruella de Vil growled.

"I didn't leave my fish behind to get lost in the back woods of Maine on a wild-goose chase," rumbled Ursula.

Gold put his hands up to motion the women to silence. "Ladies, ladies, please. I promise you I have not brought you out here in a futile effort. Just a few yards down the road is the barrier cloaking a town of magic. Storybrooke, Maine, wherein lies the answer to our problems. All our problems," he emphasized.

"Yes, darling. This mysterious 'author' of yours," Cruella drawled.

Gold grinned. "The 'author' of all our misfortunes, as it were."

"And since you were banished, you can't exactly see the town, either, darling. So how do you expect us to be able to get back in?"

Gold's grin took on a more sinister appearance. "Because I have this," he hissed, holding up a small paper scroll tied with red ribbon.

"What is 'this'?" Ursula asked, mocking his tone.

He turned to her with a sneer. "This is a magical scroll which will allow us to cross over the barrier. I just so happen to have purloined it before being exiled."

"The townspeople will just let you waltz back into their happy little burg without so much as a raised eyebrow?" Cruella returned his expression while somehow still managing to look bored.

"No, they won't. That's where you two come in. Find your way to Regina and Snow White. Convince them you've changed your spots, and blend in with the town. Learn all you can, especially about Regina's adoptive son Henry. He's in possession of the magical book that has all our stories. See if you can distract him and steal the book."

"You want us to steal a book from a kid?" Ursula clarified.

Gold snorted. "Believe me, my grandson is no mere child."

Two jaws dropped in unison. "You have a grandson who is the Evil Queen's adoptive son?" asked Cruella.

Ursula was more focused on the root cause of the child in question. "You had a child?"

Eyes widening as he realized his slip, Gold gave a little slump. "You haven't heard the worst of it, yet."

Two eyebrows rose as the women in front of him folded their arms and stared, expectation written across their faces.

"Henry is my grandson and Regina's adoptive son. He happens to be the biological child of my son Baelfire…and…Emma Swan, who just so happens to be the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming," replied the Dark One with the same tone one would use to describe the contents of a garbage dump.

Dead silence reigned for several moments as Cruella and Ursula tried to process that information. Then Ursula snorted while Cruella coughed. Those turned into chuckles, then giggles, and finally outright full-belly laughter.

"Yo – your grandson is also the grandson of those two goody two-shoes?" Cruella barked through her snorts.

Ursula was more direct. "You're related to that sanctimonious princess and her shepherd husband?"

"Sadly, I am, and that has forced some uneasy alliances in this town during our various travails. But the time has come to cut those alliances. Henry's book is the key, and we must get it from him, preferably without his knowledge, but if it becomes necessary, this whole operation is about burning bridges."

The two women shared a look before turning back to him. "So we go in, make friends, figure out where the kid is hiding the book, and bring it to you…where will you be hiding during all of this?" Cruella wondered.

Gold gestured to the woods off to the side of their road. "I have a small cabin in the forest west of the town. It's protected with various wards that should keep Regina and Emma from learning I've returned. I will also be working toward what I need to resurrect Maleficent. She should prove a powerful ally against Snow and her merry band. Now, standing out in the woods on a cold evening isn't exactly my idea of a good time. Shall we cross the barrier and begin to execute our plan?"

* * *

 **A/N: And there we go! Thoughts, comments? Constructive criticism and reviews are always appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hello again, everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable week!  
**

 **Here we are with an update to this little story of mine. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed on the last chapter. Your response has been awesome!**

 **As always, laurathechef did awesome beta work on this and deserves all the credit. Usual disclaimer goes here of not owning the show, characters, yadda yadda. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely accidental.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"What are you thinking about?" Snow asked quietly, recognizing the look on her husband's face.

They were sitting together on the farm house's small sofa, enjoying a moment of peace that was becoming increasingly rare. She'd been watching her husband slowly leave the meaningless conversation they'd been having to fill the time while Henry did his homework and watched over Emma. It was a look she was very well-accustomed to, as he began chewing over a thought.

He jerked out of his thoughts, brought back into the room by her question. "What? I'm sorry; I missed what you said."

She gave him an indulgent smile. "You were somewhere far away, with that look on your face that means you're thinking about something extra hard. What's going on?"

"Well," David answered after taking a breath, "I've just been thinking about a couple I know."

The smile turned warm as she affectionately bumped his shoulder. "Oh yeah? What about this couple of yours?"

Returning her smile, he started reeling off a list of things he'd observed. "Well, when they met they hated each other. I mean: really hated each other. Fists were thrown. But there was something keeping them close to each other. They even ended up saving each other's lives quite a few times when danger threatened. They've had to overcome so much in their lives to get where they are now. They even share a son."

Snow's smile grew until it was fully ear-to-ear. "Oh, Charming. You're such a romantic to think about our early meetings like that."

He chuckled. "I do what I can, Snow, but I wasn't thinking of us."

Her brow furrowed. "Well, if you're not talking about us then who are you talking about?"

"They're not exactly a romantic couple, but I was thinking of Regina and Emma," he answered slowly, hesitant to voice his thoughts with how he knew his wife would react.

The reaction didn't disappoint. Snow's jaw fell open as her eyes went huge and round. "You can't be serious," she breathed, "Tell me you're joking."

"Look at what you know about them. Look at what you know of their early relationship. Is it really all that different from our own?" he replied, speaking in a slow and gentle voice to avoid putting her on the defensive.

"But, but, but," she sputtered, "She's the Evil Queen! She's done horrible things to so many people over the years, including our own family!"

"Believe me, I know what she has done in the past, but by and large that is in the past. She's changed since Henry. I can admit that since I've seen it with my own eyes. Especially since the Curse broke, she's changed."

"You sound like you actually want them together," Snow accused, sliding away from him to put some distance between them on the couch.

David ran his hands through his hair. "It's not the match I would have chosen for Emma, even if we were in the old world and I had the right to influence her choice. It's just...the more I think about it the more I see some value in it. You know as well as I do that no one protects people they love more than Regina. She's the most powerful magic user in this town now that the Dark One is gone."

"Emma would be safe, as safe as Henry," she agreed, nodding slowly.

"They're both dealt with so much adversity in their lives," David continued, "Maybe what they need is someone who understands what they've been through."

"She has been devoted to breaking Emma's barrier spell," Snow remembered, "Almost fanatically so. I thought it was just guilt, but now that you've got me thinking about what they might be like together, I almost wonder if there's more to it for Regina."

"Don't forget how much Emma defended her after the Curse broke and then in Neverland. Except for when Cora framed her, Emma has been pretty steadfast in her support," David noted.

Snow's mouth worked up and down a couple times before she was finally able to give voice to her question. "Do you think either of them are aware of any possible feelings they might have?"

He laughed, feeling some of the tension of his revelation and concern over how his wife would handle the idea dissipating. "Two women as stubborn as they are? Not a chance."

She grew thoughtful. "So how could we influence that?"

Now it was David's turn for his eyes to grow large and round. "What are you thinking?"

She gave him a mischievous grin. "Oh, I have an idea or two. Do you trust me?"

"Always," came his instinctual reaction.

"Then follow my lead."

* * *

"Any luck yet, Mom?" Henry asked as he walked down the stairs. From the muttered curses that he'd overheard before announcing his presence, there hadn't been, but she might have had an idea or something.

Or not.

"Damn it!"

His mother's shout as he got to the bottom of the stairs stopped him in his tracks. He'd learned throughout his childhood that when she got that upset, it was best to approach slowly, calmly, and with as nonthreatening of a voice as he could muster. "Mom? Is everything all right?"

The sound of a book hitting the floor grabbed his attention as his mother spun around, eyes wide at being caught. "Oh, Henry. I'm sorry for startling you. I was just…well I thought I had a way through the barrier. I read an old spell in one of Gold's books that suggested the way through a barrier spell cast by a white magic user was to cloak your own magic. The idea was that a white magic user wouldn't protect themselves from non-magic users. Well, I did it. I temporarily cloaked my magic, but it would seem that your intrepid mother anticipated that. Not even non-magical beings can get through."

She looked so lost, so forlorn and defeated as she slumped back into the office chair that it was impossible for him to resist the urge to run up and envelop her in a hug. "You'll get this. You always do. I have faith in you, Mom," Henry whispered.

His mother must have been more affected by her failure to break a barrier spell than she'd let on. Instead of responding to his encouragement with a grateful smile and tightening the hug like she'd always done in the past, she slipped out of his embrace and buried her face in her hands. She took several deep breaths in an obvious attempt to calm herself once more.

During the time that his birth mother had spent in the cursed sleep, Henry's mind must have been churning over a mental association in the background, much as a computer does, because it chose that moment to pop into his consciousness. "Barrier spell," he whispered.

"What did you say?" Regina murmured.

"Mom! I have an idea!" he exclaimed.

She laughed, but it rang bitter and mirthless against the bare cinder block walls. "None of our ideas have led to anything yet."

"No, wait a minute. I think I have something here. I never got the full story for how you guys got around Zelena's barrier spell in the Enchanted Forest. You remember, in that year when Ma and I were in New York."

"Oh, that," she dismissed, closing her eyes again. "I deactivated it at its power source inside the castle."

He grinned. "Yeah, but how did you get inside to turn it off?"

"Well, there were tunnels underneath the castle that I used because most barrier spells don't extend below ground," she answered in the same tone.

Henry waited. She hadn't put the two thoughts together yet. After such a long time that he was honestly beginning to worry for his mother's fatigued mental state, her head shot up, eyes as round as dinner plates. "Beneath the ground! Henry!" she almost shouted, jumping to her feet and wrapping him in an embrace that was much more reminiscent of their hugs when he was younger. "If we can somehow dig under the ground, we can get to her and turn off her spell. It's brilliant! I'm so proud of you, Henry!"

He flushed, happy with her praise.

"Go get your grandparents and tell them your idea and that we'll need the dwarves, too. " she instructed.

With nothing more than a happy nod, the teen turned and ran up the stairs. Regina, now alone in the basement, looked at her son's other mother. "We'll get you out of there, Emma Swan. And then I promise you we'll figure out a way to wake you up. I swear it."

* * *

Regina's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the three Charmings – including Henry – coming down the stairs followed by the seven dwarves with their mining tools propped on their shoulders. Snow and David almost vibrated with excitement and tension.

"What's going on, Regina?" Snow demanded, moving to stand next to the older woman.

Instead of responding, Regina gestured to Grumpy. "I think the best place to get started is over there, by her feet."

"Regina?" David pressed.

Satisfied with the dwarves' progress, she turned to the people standing to her left. "Henry figured it out. He asked me how we beat Zelena's barrier spell on my own castle in the Enchanted Forest."

Light dawned in Snow's eyes. "We went under it!"

Regina returned her smile. "Exactly. So, I thought that if we couldn't beat it with magic, we could dig under it."

David looked elated. "If they can go down and under digging a big enough tunnel, then one of us can go in and wake her with True Love's kiss, like she did with Henry!"

With a squeal, Snow ran forward and wrapped Regina in a bear hug so tight it almost looked like the older woman's eyes would pop out of her skull. After a few moments where it looked like Regina was more uncomfortable than she had ever been in her life, David was able to pry his wife away from her. "Sorry about that."

"Just don't let it happen again," warned Regina, visibly suppressing a shudder. "Okay, let's get out of the way and let the dwarves get to work."

Standing back as the Charmings congratulated Henry on his brainstorm, Regina watched as the seven men set to their task with a will. If this was how they mined fairy dust, she could see why the fairies were so powerful in their old world. Instead of forming a line and taking turns when one tired, they picked a spot about ten feet from where Emma's feet rested and gathered in a circle. Grumpy started a wave as each of their picks bit into the floor one at a time, allowing each dwarf to rest in between swings.

They had cut through the flimsy floorboards in just a few moments and were down into the earth below the basement. As they worked, they whistled, which would have had her snorting in derision in the not-too-distant past, but now only called her attention to the way they dug. Once the hole was down to about three feet, they broke out the shovels and worked in much the same way, only taking turns in groups of three.

Charming and Snow were having a whispered conversation behind her that she couldn't quite make out, but she thought she heard her name mentioned once or twice. She shrugged it off, choosing instead to pay attention to the dwarves in front of her. When they had gotten about three feet down, the harder-packed soil slowed down their progress.

She was dimly aware of someone going up the stairs behind her, but kept her focus on the digging. For the dwarves to dig a tunnel deep enough to get under the barrier, they'd have to put in some support structures to prevent collapsing their digging.

Half an hour later, someone came down the stairs. Even in the dank mustiness of the basement, Regina picked up the different smell. Turning her attention from the digging, she saw David toting a cooler down the stairs, followed by a stack of boxes atop Snow's legs. The distinct aroma of heated tomato sauce and melted cheese wafted her way. "Is that pizza?"

Setting the boxes down with a huff, Snow's head peeked around the stack. "Yeah! I thought it would be a nice, easy calorie boost for the dwarves, working as hard as they are to get my daughter free."

Regina nodded, acknowledging the wisdom of the thought as she turned back to gaze at Emma, the dwarves putting their digging tools down for the break.

"I also thought it would be a good meal for you, Regina," Snow added.

Whirling around in surprise at Snow's presumption, she stared at the younger woman. "Excuse me? I've never had that fat- and cholesterol-laden disaster bread in my life, and I don't intend to start now."

Snow frowned, moving closer to Regina and lowering her voice. "I haven't said anything to you, but I'm worried. You haven't been eating very well since you've been down here working, and you've lost weight. When Emma wakes up you want to be in your best shape, don't you?"

"My best shape? What the hell are you talking about?" She asked, brow furrowing at the strange comment.

Grumpy shoving his way between the two women on a quest for pizza interrupted Snow's reply before she could get it out. With the rest of the dwarves following, the moment was lost. Regina was left to ponder the implications of Snow's cryptic words.

* * *

She wasn't left to her thoughts for long. Snow soon shoved a slice of gooey, greasy mess into her hands, with only a paper towel to protect her delicate skin. When Regina opened her mouth to protest, her stomach betrayed her with a rumble so loud even Snow could hear it. Her former stepdaughter raised an eyebrow in an eloquent challenge. Never one to back down or show weakness, Regina met her gaze and held it as she bit into her very first slice of pizza.

To her utter dismay, a moan of pure delight escaped before she could quell it. The bread holding up the cheese and sauce had just the right amount of crunch while the melted cheese made her neglected salivary glands work overtime. The overall taste was vaguely reminiscent of her lasagna, but with enough difference to be in a world all its own. Regina looked down at her hands, startled to see that the slice had disappeared.

Snow chuckled. "Something you want to say?"

Unwilling to admit that Snow White had introduced her to a culinary treat, Regina slid her expressionless mask back into pace, setting her jaw and taking a breath. "It's not something I would want to have regularly, with all the fat and cholesterol from the cheese, not to mention the carbohydrates from the crust, but as a rare treat, it was surprisingly good. Maybe once we've woken Emma, I can do some research into healthier varieties. In the meantime, though…" she abandoned dignity and reached for another slice, knowing her body needed any sustenance it could get.

Henry was talking to his grandfather and, growing boy that he was, wolfing down slice after slice. A pang struck her at the sight. _Is this something more I could have done for him as a child? An occasional unhealthy treat that brings him joy? So many wasted opportunities._

Snow must have read something in her expression, because Regina soon found the teacher's hand on her forearm. "It's okay, Regina. We'll get through this just like we've gotten through so many other things. There's nothing wrong with a little junk food every now and then. I'm glad you liked it. Granny will be thrilled that the very first slice you ever had been one of hers, and that you enjoyed it."

"Indeed," Regina mused, "Maybe I can trade a recipe of my own for this one."

Snow returned her smile with one of her own. "It's been a very long few weeks, but Henry's brilliant idea might just be what we need to wake Emma up."

The older woman felt a wave of affection sweep through her. "It really was a good idea, wasn't it?"

"You should be proud of him, Regina. I'm not just saying that as his grandmother – that's still really weird to say – or as his teacher, but just someone who's really impressed with a mature, respectful young man."

Regina looked at her former stepdaughter, heart warmed at the compliment. "Thank you, Snow," she responded in a subdued voice.

"I know I've never said this to you before, but you're a fantastic mother, Regina. In fact, I've found myself comparing how I mother Neal to how you've raised Henry. You set a high bar that I pretty much don't ever live up to," Snow confessed, casting her eyes down at the vulnerability in the statement.

Shock coursed through Regina. It was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to her. The fact that it had come from someone her conscious mind considered her worst enemy blew her mind. The world really had changed. "Parenting is all about learning as you go. Every child is different, so even in the same family what would have worked for the elder would not necessarily help the younger. You'll figure it out. Your damned optimism will see to that," she found herself answering.

They ate in companionable silence for almost another half an hour. Snow watched Regina eat two more slices before she gave a satisfied huff to Regina's eye-roll, but a part of her appreciated the concern. From her mother to her late unlamented husband, few had ever shown her enough care and worry to make sure she was eating enough to keep her energy at adequate levels. The bitterness over her loss of Daniel was still present; in many ways she thought it would always be there, no matter if she ever found her mythical 'happy ending' or not. Somehow the Charming's were slowly eroding her resentment.

Grumpy led the dwarves back to their digging, interrupting her musings. She and Snow sat back with Charming and Henry, watching their efforts. It seemed the pizza was a good idea, as they dug with renewed effort after eating. The hole looked to be around six feet in diameter, big enough to allow a grown adult to walk through and the dwarves to swing their pickaxes without fear of hitting each other.

Conversation fell silent as they dug, and before long the boards in front of Emma's cot started bumping upward. Grumpy shouted back for a crowbar, which Dopey hurried to pass to him. Regina stood as her heart rate increased to the point where it felt like it was about to burst from her chest. Once Grumpy started whacking away at the floorboards from beneath, she could almost feel the impacts herself.

With a creak and a groan, the first boards gave way. The light now shining through the gap energized the dwarves, and they doubled their efforts with a hearty cheer. In almost no time at all compared to the tunneling, the boards were gone and Snow was shoving everyone out of his way to get to her little girl.

The dwarves reassembled back on the outside of the spell zone while Regina, bracing for the impact of the magical wave, watched Snow caress Emma's temple before she bent and kissed her daughter's forehead.

Nothing happened.

No light-pulse. No spell breaking. No curse breaking.

Regina's heart rattled as Snow buried her face in her hands, silent tears squeezing out through her fingers. David and Henry raced through the tunnel to try their hands at waking Emma.

Still nothing.

The barrier spell had the interesting side effect of blocking all sound, Regina noted, as she watched the Charmings confer. Their pain was evident in the tears still coursing down Snow's face. The woman seemed barely able to respond to her husband's remarks through her stifled sobs.

David had some water in his eyes, but reined in his emotions enough to not show any other outward signs of his distress.

Henry was holding back his own tears, but his eyes were still glistening. Regina felt a pang of disappointment, having tried to teach the boy that it was perfectly acceptable for a man to cry. But he was still a teenager and felt the pressure of society to conform.

Snow and Henry tearfully made their way out of the tunnel. "I'm so sorry," Regina sympathized, shocking everyone present by wrapping Snow in a heartfelt embrace. The younger woman went stiff for a second, but then allowed herself to accept Regina's touch. The former Queen soon found herself in a sandwich as Henry rested his head on her shoulder and embraced her from the side. Over Snow's head, Regina watched as David picked his daughter up from her cot and carried her through the tunnel, not allowing the dwarves to aid him.

As he approached, Snow took a few stuttering breaths and quelled her sniffing. "We need to move her back to the loft. Can you use your magic to get us at least as far as our car, Regina?"

"Like hell!" she retorted. "Your loft is nowhere near as secure as it needs to be. I can protect her from my house against all magical threats. She'll come to my place."

The protests from Emma's parents were nowhere near as vehement as she had expected, but still she raised her hands. "I'm sorry. When it comes down to it, Emma moved out of your apartment of her own free will. Something about living there was distressing her enough to push her to leave. I don't think putting her right back in is the best plan. Let me take her to the mansion. I'll put her up in a room of her own, or I can even transport a bed into my study for her to use while I figure out how to break the curse."

"If you think that's best," Snow allowed. David's hands twitched before his wife grabbed them.

Regina snorted. "Of course I do. Henry, prepare yourself."

With a wave of her hand, she called on her magic to take herself, Henry, and Emma back to the mansion. As the violet smoke swirled to encompass her, she could have sworn she saw Snow and David exchange a knowing glance, but the spell had whisked her away before she could call them on it.

Something for her to think on for later.

* * *

 **A/N: Thoughts? Reviews are always welcome!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello again everyone! Thank you for the wonderful response to my chapters thus far.  
**

 **As usual, laurathechef did amazing work getting this chapter ready for your eyes. I hope you enjoy it!**

 **I don't claim any ownership of the show, characters, plots, or settings. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.**

* * *

"Do you think she'll show up?" Snow asked her husband across the table at Granny's.

David looked over her shoulder at the door, waiting to see if it would open. When it didn't, he returned his attention to his wife. "I hope so, Snow. I really do."

The brunette shook her head. "She needs to know that we're looking out for her."

"She knows that we do," he replied, stirring his now-cold coffee with disinterest. "Henry's been after her almost daily to get her out to meals with us."

Snow nodded. "But it's been a struggle every time. She's so dedicated to waking Emma."

"Do you think she knows why yet?" David asked, looking up from his coffee.

That actually made her chuckle. "A woman as stubborn as her? Not a chance. Hopefully we can give her the nudge in the right direction."

"Well, isn't that pretty much what this is all about? At least somewhat, anyway," he nodded.

Whatever Snow responded was lost to him as his entire body froze, gaze locked on Granny's front door. David swallowed the spike of fear.

Ursula and Cruella were standing in Granny's Diner.

Eventually Snow stopped talking when she realized he wasn't paying attention. When she turned to see what distracted her husband, she reacted the same way.

"Oh come now, darlings. It's not like you're seeing ghosts," Cruella drawled as she slid into the booth across from them.

"Indeed," Ursula commented as her tentacles pulled a nearby chair over, "We're very much alive."

Snow's mouth opened and closed a few times like a goldfish. When it became apparent that she was in no shape to continue to the conversation, David took over. "How did you get into Storybrooke?"

Ursula gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "We made a deal with a mermaid. She let us use one of her scales to create a potion that opened a portal. It was just enough magic to get us here."

"Ugh. I hate sea travel, too," Cruella grumbled.

That made the sea witch snort. "You think you have it bad? Do you have any idea how long it's going to get the wet dog smell out of my hair?"

At last Snow found her voice. "So what is it you want with our peaceful little town?"

"The same thing anyone else wants, darling," replied Cruella as she looked around the diner, "peace, and happy endings, all that jazz."

"And what makes you think we're just going to welcome a couple of dark magic witches with open arms?" Charming bristled.

"Because they're just like I…was…," Regina answered, approaching the group. "Bitch. Sea Bitch," she greeted Cruella and Ursula, respectively.

"Regina!" Ursula responded with a smile that actually appeared genuine.

"You look awful," Snow commented before three glares and a reproachful squeeze from her husband brought her up short. "Sorry, I just meant you look tired is all."

"Yes, well, I've been losing sleep over our little problem. I find I don't have the energy for my usual beauty regime," Regina muttered.

Cruella's eyes grew wide. "I don't think I've ever heard Regina say she didn't have the energy for anything. What do you make of that, Ursula darling?"

The other sorceress chuckled. "No, never. It's strange, but these are strange times, especially with me on land and us…here," she finished, glancing around the diner.

For her part, Regina looked suspicious, but not hostile "How in the worlds did you two find out about my little town?"

"It's all over the old world, darling," said Cruella, "When the good Snow here and her daughter got away from Cora, rumors started flying like the very birds themselves."

Regina rolled her eyes as she slid in next to Cruella. "Wonderful. Shall we be expecting any more incursions?"

"Now you're just being paranoid. We were the only two that came through that portal, and the mermaids only helped us because Ursula here promised to give one of them her voice," responded the older woman.

"Besides, we're getting tired of being screwed over by the Dark One and not getting our happy endings anyway because we're the villains," Ursula responded, "So we thought we'd join you in your wholesome little town."

"You want to settle down. Here, in Storybrooke. As reformed dark magic witches?" Regina's voice made her disbelief apparent to anyone listening.

"Is it so hard to imagine?" Ursula looked offended.

"Not that hard, just surprising from the two of you. I never imagined either of you to be the kind that would willingly settle down."

Cruella nodded. "We're tired, darling. Tired of being screwed over by Rumpelstiltskin. Tired of not having a happy ending. It's time we had some peace."

Regina fixed them each with a hard stare, looking them straight in the eye for any signs of deception. Finding none, she nodded and shrugged. "Okay. Welcome to our town. I'm the Mayor (she ignored Ursula's snorted (of course you are'), Snow is a teacher, and Charming here is the deputy sheriff."

"Deputy?" Cruella smirked, "Just the deputy position for the Prince? Who's the Sheriff, then?"

Neither of the newcomers missed the nearly identical looks of anguish that crossed all three faces in front of them. "What? Was it something I said?" Ursula asked

Snow shook her head. "No, it's just…my daughter was…IS the sheriff."

"Was?" Cruella asked in a gentle tone, trying to avoid provoking anyone.

Regina shook her head. "She still is; she's just temporarily on leave. She put herself under a sleeping curse because of a giant misunderstanding."

Two pairs of goggled eyes stared back at them. "Wait, wait, and wait. First of all: you two have a daughter old enough to be the sheriff?" Cruella asked, finding her voice first.

"And why did she put herself under the sleeping curse?" chimed Ursula.

Regina gave a mirthless chuckle. "The age thing is because of the Dark Curse. It froze the town for twenty-eight years, but Emma wasn't affected, so she's basically the same age as her parents. As for the curse thing, well, it's all just a misunderstanding. We're working on breaking it now."

"There's only one thing that can break a sleeping curse, darling, and that's True Love's kiss. I take it by the fact that you're all here means that Mommy and Daddy dearest failed?"

Rather than face the righteous ire of the assembled people in front of her at her intentionally cruel words, Cruella sat back in her seat, stunned at the deflation she saw. Charming, Snow, and Regina all folded in on themselves, seemingly tucking their bodies into smaller versions of themselves. "Oh. I'm…I'm sorry to hear that," she offered, with the awkwardness at trying to appear sincere breaking her voice.

Surprising the newcomers, Charming was the first to collect himself enough to answer. "We're still working on it. There are various reasons for everything that's happened. It's just a matter of trying to figure out what will work."

"Anyway, we'll go with what we said earlier. You two can find a place here in town and start working on your redemption, turning over a new leaf, and all that good stuff," Regina interjected over the awkward moment.

Cruella and Ursula shared a look. "I think we can manage that. Just where do you suggest we take up residence?"

"Where everyone else stays until they find something more permanent: right here at Granny's Bed and Breakfast," Regina grinned, knowing how the prospect would seem to the two witches used to much more splendor in their dwellings. She gestured to Granny. "She'll get you set up."

Cruella and Ursula shared another look before shrugging and nodding. "See you around, darlings."

When they were alone again and Regina had resumed her seat across from the Charming's, she looked at her former nemeses. "This changes things. I don't like them being in town."

"Then why did you let them stay?" Snow asked, eyeing the retreating forms with a wary eye.

Regina gave her a pointed stare. "Because this way I can keep an eye on them. If we'd turned them out God knows what havoc those two could wreak."

"Then what's the problem?" Charming wondered.

"Two dark magic users that powerful in this town and the Savior, who is under a sleeping curse? We need to ramp up our efforts to wake Emma," declared Regina.

Snow leaned over the table and grasped Regina's wrist. "Then you do whatever you have to do to wake our daughter up. _Whatever_ you have to do," she emphasized with a squeeze.

* * *

 _3:23_

The blinking red lights seared their way into Regina's eyelids, mocking her inability to find sleep.

"Damn it," she groaned, rolling over for what felt like the thirty-seventh time. There was no position that she could find that felt comfortable.

It was the same story every night. She wanted to sleep. She tried to get to sleep. She just couldn't get to sleep. The guilt was overpowering. Regina's mind played a constant stream of self-recriminations. Regardless of what Snow or David said, she couldn't shake the feeling that the root cause of Emma's actions could be laid at her feet.

She grumbled and threw back the covers, hissing when the cold air hit her silk-clad skin. Winters in Maine were the worst part of being cursed to this world. Dealing with the feet of snow and below-zero wind chills that were never a part of even the worst winters in the Enchanted Forest was definitely a punishment of some kind.

Throwing on her heavy fleece pajamas – her sheets and comforter were far too heavy and warm for that level of sleepwear – she made her way past Henry's room. Smiling as always at the soft rumble of his snoring, Regina kept walking to the guest room. At first seeing Emma's still form on her guest bed was unnerving, but over time she'd gotten somewhat used to the sight. It bothered her, but not to the degree it had initially.

Sitting in a chair next to the bed, Regina took in the sight of her son's birth mother, the daughter of her former archenemy, and the only woman she had ever thought to call a friend.

Her friend, she snorted at the thought. For most of her life the idea of friendship was alien, removed from anything she ever thought she deserved.

"I'm back, Emma," she whispered, feeling foolish for talking to someone under a sleeping curse. "I don't even know why I'm talking to you like this. You can't answer. Depending on whether or not you believe Henry you might not even be able to hear me.

"And yet I keep coming back here and talking to you," continued Regina, dropping her head into her hands and running her fingers through her hair, "because I've never felt so much regret and guilt in my life. Never, not even once."

Regina winced, forcing her eyes closed to fight the tears that always seemed to be on the ragged edge of her consciousness in these long, dark nights. "And then I hate myself even more because the curse brought me Henry, so I wouldn't change it, even knowing what it meant for you. It eats at me all day, but even worse at night."

Getting to her feet, she made her way around the room. "I've always been alone. Always. Even when I was just a girl, my father never stood up to my mother. I never had a friend, a confidant. He would always help me after Mother's abuse, but he never helped me in the moment. I thought I had someone in Daniel, but Mother soon made sure I wasn't allowed even that bit of happiness. I don't even blame your ridiculous mother anymore. The woman is clearly incapable of keeping a secret; Daniel was just the first unfortunate victim."

Fatigue weighed her down. Regina wanted nothing more in that moment than to lie down in her disgustingly comfortable bed and give herself to the sweet embrace of slumber, but it would be a futile effort, just like every other night. Without the grace that she usually reserved for her every action, Regina all but flopped back on the bed next to Emma. "Sorry," she apologized.

"I thought the curse was my way out. I thought it was the one thing that could give me my happy ending. My mother was safely banished to Wonderland, and with Snow and Charming deprived of their happiness, it was all I could ever want," she breathed, "But that wasn't the case. Eighteen years in the loneliness and sheer repetitiveness of every single day was a drudgery that I had never known. That's when I went to Rumple for help adopting a child.

Of course I know now that was all part of his plan. Seriously, he makes this world's Machiavelli look like the Pope," she chuckled, patting Emma's shin, "it was all foretold. We were all just pawns in his game to get his son back. Of course you have to wonder if he's really all he's cracked up to be if he went to the trouble of creating the Dark Curse when he could have at least searched the giant's castle for an extra bean, right?

"Anyway, that brought you into my life, and I reverted back to the Evil Queen right away. There's almost nothing that I did from that time that I'm proud of right now, but even those days pale to what happened when you got back from the time portal," Regina paused for a shuddering breath, knowing the next words would be the hardest to speak, but confessing these particular sins to an empty, silent room would be the best rehearsal for when she worked up the courage to apologize to Emma's face. After the Savior awoke, of course.

"I was horrible to you. I have excuses in my head for why I acted the way I did, but the truth is that nothing can excuse treating you that way for a simple mistake. Words will never be able to express my sorrow and regret for those days, Emma, but," she sniffed, unwilling to brush aside the tears that finally overflowed their banks and eliminate that sign of her remorse, "I hope that finding some small way to wake you up can help. I just wish I knew what you were thinking of in those last few minutes before you pricked your finger. If there was someone you were thinking about it might give me the idea of who your True Love is."

She got back to her feet and wobbled her way to the window on unsteady legs. The waxing moon reflected off the recent snowfall, bathing Storybrooke in a kind of second dawn, almost as bright as the first. "Were you a Shakespeare fan?

' _To be or not to be, that is the question:_

 _whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer_

 _the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune_

 _and by opposing end them: to die, to sleep_

 _no more; and by sleep to say we end_

 _the Heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks_

 _that Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation_

 _Devoutly to be wish. To die, to sleep,_

 _To sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub,_

 _For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,'_

Her voice grew in strength as she progressed through the soliloquy until she was so overtaken by the passion that she almost gasped her breath when she stopped. "I have always loved reading his works since we came to this world. I wonder if those lines reflected your own thoughts. Maybe your love is in your dreams right now. It wouldn't surprise me, being the Savior and a creature of such powerful light magic. You might be strong enough to escape the fiery room that all other sleeping curse victims seem to find themselves damned to. I just wish…" she paused to collect her thoughts, "I just wish there was a way I could see your thoughts to get an idea of who you would want to wake you up."

As Regina voiced her desire to see Emma's True Love reflected in her memories, the moonlight shining through the window caught her attention. With the words echoing in her mind as she gazed out the window, the answer came to her in a flash so tangible she half-expected to see it in front of her, transported by her magic. Her shout of triumph was loud enough to rattle the pane in front of her.

"That's it!"

* * *

"You're joking. You have to be joking. That or you simply misheard what they said," declared the Dark One as he looked at his two guests.

The witches stood in front of him, Ursula with her arms folded and Cruella with hands on her hips. "No joke, darling," Cruella retorted, "The daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White put herself under the Sleeping Curse."

He sat back, flabbergasted. So rare was it to see Rumpelstiltskin truly taken by surprise that the two women enjoyed the sight, even with the added complications it brought to their situation. "What in the bloody hell did she do that for?"

"They weren't as forthcoming with all the in's, outs, and what-have-you," Ursula answered him, "All they said was that she put herself under the Curse because of a misunderstanding that they were trying to fix."

With a huff, Rumpelstiltskin got to his feet, pacing around the small cabin. "This changes things. Did they say where Emma was? If we can find her…well, putting herself under a curse like that speaks to darkness already forming in her heart. It's a drastic action. Simply finding her might be enough."

"No, they didn't tell us where the girl's being kept," Cruella answered.

"Well, then I guess you'll just have to do some searching," answered the Dark One in a voice that was barely more than a hiss, "Walk around town under the guise of meeting your new neighbors, showing you've turned over a new leaf, and all that nonsense. See if you can sense a protection spell or any defenses from this world around a particular location. If we can find a strong enough protection around any particular building, the chances are that's where Snow and Charming's daughter is sleeping. Then we'll strike. Once I have my tainted Savior blood, I'll be able to find the Author and get him to write some happy endings for the villains."

* * *

 **A/N: Comments and constructive criticism is much appreciated!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Welcome back, everyone! Here we have another installment of The Hero's Way :) I hope you're enjoying reading it as much as I did writing it.  
**

 **As before, laurathechef did a phenomenal job as beta, even though she prefers rugby to AFL. Still, no one's perfect :-D**

 **I claim no ownership of the show, characters, settings, people, places, or events. Any resemblance to anything that happened in this world is entirely coincidental.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The morning sun was just peeking its way over the trees hemming Storybrooke in against the sea as Regina drove Henry to school. Silence seemed to fill the expensive Mercedes as Regina tried to figure out how to explain her plan for the day without raising his hopes in what might be a futile effort. She discarded every beginning as too hopeful or too depressing. A persistent prodding of her right elbow drew her out of her reverie.

"Mom? Mom!" Henry called her.

Shaking her head, Regina pulled herself out of her thoughts. "Yes, Henry?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for five minutes now. Where were you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized, "I was trying to figure out how to broach a certain subject with you."

"You know you can tell me anything, Mom," insisted Henry, "I'd like to think after the last few years that there wasn't much I couldn't handle."

With a sigh, Regina spared him a glance out of the corner of her eye. "I think I might have finally figured out a way to help wake your mother."

He turned in his seat to fully face her. "But that's awesome! I can't believe we can finally get her back!" Her answering wince quelled his enthusiasm. "Why aren't you more excited?"

"I am, sweetheart, I am. It's just…I don't know if it will work for certain, and I don't want to get your hopes up unnecessarily," she explained, "and even when we get Emma to wake up, there will probably be a lot of work needed to help her. A lot of really bad things happened to get her to the point of making the decision she did. It's not going to be pleasant to help her work past them."

"But she'll be okay, right?" he asked, and it hurt her heart to hear how small his voice sounded

Regina sighed again, feeling the weight of all her past actions pressing down on her at once. She had to give Henry an answer that would make sense to him without revealing too much for his teenaged worldview. "I have to do a lot of apologizing to Emma. It…I can't even begin to list all the things that I've done that have impacted Emma's life for the worse. I cast the Dark Curse, my soldiers and I were driving into the White Palace when the Curse hit, forcing Snow and Charming to shove her through that portal, and then all the abuse I heaped on her here in Storybrooke…So much of what has happened to her is either directly or indirectly my fault."

"Emma's really forgiving, mom. You're part of her family. I'm sure she won't hold anything against you, especially if you make up for all that by helping her find her True Love when you get her to wake up," Henry consoled.

"I never meant for any of this to happen. I didn't know they were going to put her through the portal by herself, or that she would end up on the side of the road in Maine. I didn't know all that she'd suffer in the foster care system," she was babbling now, but something about Henry's automatic forgiveness, or implication of Emma's forgiveness, had broken her defenses, "With a mother like I had, it took me until you came along to really realize how to love, and even then I tried to hold onto you too tight, because everyone I've ever loved has been taken from me…"

Henry put a hand on her forearm, careful not to pull hard enough to make her spin the wheel. "Emma knows all that, Mom. We all do. Trust me, after Cora came to Storybrooke, we all got a lesson into what your childhood must have been like. Emma knows that," he repeated, emphasizing his point, "And we all understand that. I know you've reformed, and so does everyone else. We will work things out when Emma wakes up, I promise."

His unwavering faith in her boosted her spirits. Regina gave her son a slightly watery smile before they each went back to watching the town passing by their windows. A comfortable silence, much improved from their previous awkwardness, settled over the car. After a few minutes, Henry turned to look at her again. "Mom? Didn't you know that Emma wasn't alone when she went through the portal?"

"What?"

* * *

David stared out the dining room window, mind working overtime on a particularly vexing matter that had kept him up a good chunk of the previous night. His arm was moving repetitively, but he was lost in his thoughts and paying it no mind. It was only his wife's gentle shaking of his shoulder that brought him out of it.

"David? Why are you painting Neal's face with oatmeal?"

He started, shaking his head and looking in front of him for the first time. "Oh, geez. Sorry, buddy," he apologized to his bemused son. Getting to his feet, he made his way to the sink for a wet paper towel to clean up the mess. Snow was feeding Neal his oatmeal by the time he got back, a plate of steaming scrambled eggs in front of an empty chair. The kid kept looking around at things, still unused to his high chair, but she was an expert, bobbing and weaving the spoon to land in his mouth every time.

She gave a short chuckle as he started wiping the food off Neal's face. "Where were you just then?"

"Sorry," David apologized, "I was just thinking about yesterday."

"What about yesterday?" Snow asked, keeping her focus on feeding Neal.

He huffed, sitting down to his own plate. "The witches. I can't figure out how or why they're in Storybrooke."

"I thought Regina said she was okay with it," Snow reminded him.

"She did, she did. I just worry that it might mean that the Dark One has found a way back," David mused around a mouthful of eggs.

Snow frowned. "Didn't they say they made a potion from a mermaid scale?"

"Have we ever taken the word of those two for granted before?" he pointed out.

"Okay, that's a fair point. How about we just keep an eye on them and see what happens? If they look like they're causing trouble or if something happens that we can only attribute to the Dark One, then we can start working against them. Sound good?"

He nodded. "I can get behind that."

"Good," Snow acknowledged, smiling, "Now, I have something else related to yesterday that I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh? What's that?" David wondered as he went in the kitchen to put his plate in the dishwasher. Every time he used a convenience this world had that made life easier than it was in the Enchanted Forest, he had the niggling thought that they should be grateful to Regina for the curse. Not, obviously, for the devastation it caused his family, but now that they were back together, or would be once Emma was awakened, simple things like dishwashers were powerful inducements to stay where they were.

"I think I know a way to push Regina into waking Emma up, assuming she can."

"Oh? Color me intrigued. What's your plan?"

She let out a malicious chuckle that had him looking over his shoulder with wide eyes. "Simple, Charming. We're going to make her brown eyes turn green."

David opened his mouth to ask for clarification, but a knock interrupted the moment. Snow beat him to the door. Checking the peephole, she pumped her fist. "Yes!" She waited a beat before flinging the door open to a startled Regina. "Hello!"

"I have an idea," declared the former Evil Queen after she shook her head.

"Oh! I had an idea too! Come in, come in!" Snow urged, barely giving Regina time to enter before grabbing her hand and pulling her to the table.

David watched as Regina's entire being softened as she watched Neal play with a toy at his high chair. Her expression, stern when she entered, melted into a warm smile. Her posture relaxed until she was hunched over, making silly sounds to get Neal laughing. The damnedest thing was that Neal was eating it up, too. He couldn't stop giggling and waving his hands at the once-Evil Queen. Maybe she had done some terrible things in her past, but here in Storybrooke, she really had turned over a new leaf.

"So, I was thinking," Regina began, but Snow interrupted, too eager to keep Regina off-balance so she wouldn't suspect what the Charming's were up to.

"May I go first?"

Regina wanted to speak; he could see that written across her face. She'd come over here with a real brainstorm for how to wake Emma, but if their hunch was right and Regina was the one who could break the curse, Snow had to push her. Regina deflated. "Okay. What's your plan?"

"A kissing booth!" Snow exclaimed with overdone enthusiasm.

Regina's mouth fell open.

"Well, not exactly a kissing booth. More like, we figure out the eligible bachelors in Storybrooke and let them have a chance to wake up Emma. True Love's kiss is the only thing that can break the curse, right? So it's win-win! We find Emma's True Love and she wakes up!" Snow bubbled, pouring it on thick. David had to bite the inside of his cheek to avoid laughing at her overdone excitement. Decades of hunting each other had taught them every little button the other had to push.

"Have you lost what passes for your mind?!" Regina exploded. "Can you even begin to fathom what a violation that would be to wake up to? Half of the men in Storybrooke leering over at you while you sleep, while one lucky schlub stands there drooling over your daughter?"

Regina was getting so worked up she was panting. He felt a momentary stab of guilt for messing with her like this, but the odds of her ability to wake up Emma rose every time he thought more about it. They had to put Regina on the defensive. "We both agreed, Regina. It's the only way we know of to wake her up," he pressed, schooling his expression.

"And what happens when she does wake up to see some random guy from town standing there and you two in the background? Do you have any idea what she would do to you two for pimping her out? Not to mention the poor bastard last in line to kiss her!"

"She's our daughter! She would love us for waking her up!" protested Snow, bristling. David's eyes widened just the slightest bit as a note of real indignance crept into his wife's voice. If they weren't careful, this confrontation would devolve into a real fight, which wouldn't help anyone, least of all Emma.

Raising his hands, he stepped in between the women, a common position for him even in Maine. "Okay, let's take a step back here. We all have the same goal, right? Waking Emma up? Let's focus on that. Regina," he gestured to the older woman, "You came here with an idea of your own, so if you don't like our plan that much, why don't you tell us what yours is?"

For the first time in his memory, David saw a flustered Regina. She immediately closed her mouth. Twisting her fingers together, she started walking around the room, looking at everything except them as she visibly tried to marshal her composure. After the third lap, he tried again. "Regina?"

She finally gave up. With a huff, the Mayor turned on her heels and faced them directly. "A dream catcher."

"I'm sorry?"

Regina rolled her eyes, and David had to fight a grin. They were back in familiar territory. "I use a dream catcher. I think that when Emma pricked her finger, she was thinking of the individual who has the best chance to wake her up."

Snow twitched so hard her arm almost shot out and punched his shoulder. "You just said you didn't want to violate Emma's privacy by having the men of Storybrooke kiss her awake, but you're talking about reading her mind! How is that not any worse of a violation? God only knows what you'll see," she accused.

"I would NEVER," the former Evil Queen shouted, marching over to get in Snow's face before realizing what she was doing and stopping in the middle of the room, "I would never betray her confidences like that. At least, not anymore," she finished with a wince and a half-shrug, acknowledging her past.

Almost giddy at how close Regina had come to revealing her real feelings, David had to physically calm himself down. "What assurances do we have that you're serious, Regina? How could you prevent yourself from accidentally seeing her private thoughts?"

"I could enchant the dream catcher to only show me the time immediately before she went to sleep. Say, the last half-hour or hour. My thought was that whomever she spent the most time thinking about in those moments is most likely her True Love, either familial or otherwise, and would have the best shot to wake her."

Snow shook her head and folded her arms, daring Regina to fight her. "Not good enough. What assurances do we have that you'd keep your word?"

David reached out and put his hand on his wife's shoulder. Their goal was good, but that was a bit too heavy-handed for his tastes. "Would you swear an oath?"

With a huff, Regina looked at them as if they were her court jesters. "If that's what it would take for you two to agree to this, yes. I'll swear any oath you want. I'll even swear a blood oath that I will see nothing of Emma's memories beyond her final hour she was awake, and will tell no one but you what I see. Happy?"

"I don't think a blood oath will be necessary, David. What if we just think of this as doctor-patient confidentiality? Only you're more of a magical doctor than medical. Hey! M.D. either way. That should be easy, right?" Snow grinned, knowing she had the older woman trapped.

"Fine. You two idiots draw up whatever you think you need and get it to my office today. I'll enchant and use the dream catcher tonight after Henry's asleep, to make sure he doesn't see anything. Is that acceptable?"

David and Snow shared a look, communicating with their eyes, before turning back to her and nodding. "We agree. I'll meet you at your office this afternoon, under cover of official police business," he said, "just in case Cruella or Ursula gets any ideas."

"Good," said Regina, grabbing her purse and heading for the door, "Now there's just one more thing we need to discuss. Archie."

Snow's brows furrowed as she appeared unsure of Regina's meaning. "What about Doctor Hopper?"

When Regina answered, she slowed her speech as if talking to a child. "Emma, your daughter, put herself under a sleeping curse. That's not the decision of someone for whom every moment of every day was sunshine and daisies. When we get her woken up, she's going to need a lot of help. She'll have whatever the three of us plus Henry can give her, but I think I know her well enough to say that the first thing she's going to do is wall herself off from us, try not to show any weakness. There may be times when only Archie will be able to get her to open up."

"So you think we should plan a schedule in advance?" David asked.

She nodded. "We should have a course of action in place."

"I think that's a wise idea, thank you, Regina," Snow agreed. "We can call Doctor Hopper over to your office today and work something out. If the dream-catcher idea works as well as you think it will, it's something we should be ready to do."

Taken aback at Snow's ready acquiescence, Regina could only nod. "Well, I'll see you this afternoon and with any luck Emma will be sitting at that table by this time tomorrow."

Snow waited until the door closed behind Regina before turning to David with an ear-to-ear grin. "Well, that table or another one. Maybe one in the Mayor's Mansion would have a spot for her?"

* * *

"So, let me get this straight: not only did you fail to bring the Savior to me, you couldn't uncover her location in one of the smallest towns in this world!" Rumplestiltskin hissed.

Cruella and Ursula shared a concerned look. "It's not like they're advertising it all over the town, Rumple," Cruella reminded him.

"It's true. We're new here, too. If we started showing up every random place, it would raise suspicions against us," chimed Ursula.

His face took on the fierce, feral expression of a hungry wolf. "I don't care! I need that Savior's blood so the author can have ink to rewrite our endings, in case you forgot that little detail. Once the Author has been found, which I've spent my days working on, we can force him to change anything I – I mean we – want. Who cares what the townspeople will think of you then?"

"We still have to be careful, Dark One. If we're found out before we find the Savior, you finding the Author won't matter."

"Yes, darling. Your oh-so-quaint town will be up in arms and boot us back over the town line before you could think of your next move."

"That's for me to worry about. I need the location of the Savior at the very least. Better still you bring me her sleeping body so I can do what needs to be done. Now get the hell out of my sight, and you had better not come back without news of the Savior's whereabouts at the very least," he ordered, turning his back on the two women.

They left without another word, barely holding onto their anger. They were powerful by themselves, doubly so together, but neither of them were deluded enough to think they could take on the Dark One in any realm. When she was sure they were far enough away from the Dark One's lair that even he couldn't overhear them, Ursula turned to her companion. "Do you ever think…?"

"That we picked the wrong ally? All the time, darling."

"I wonder if there's anything we can do about it."

Cruella gave her a look. "I think if we really wanted to, there are any number of people in that idyllic little hamlet who would love to know that the Dark One is back within its borders."

"Something to think about," Ursula murmured.

* * *

 **A/N: Cracks within the villains' ranks as the heroes solidify? Hmmm whatever could be going on in Storybrooke and what will Regina see in Emma's memories? Stay tuned, dearies :) Reviews are motivation!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I wasn't going to post another chapter this soon, but the response to the last update was so overwhelmingly awesome that I had to get this posted as soon as it was ready. Don't get used to it! :-) Real life has a way of getting in the way of things.  
**

 **Seriously, thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and alerted to this chapter. This was the chapter that I had in my head when I started this whole work, so I hope it reads as well for you as it sounded in my head.**

 **As always, laurathechef did phenomenal work editing this chapter. All credit to her awesomeness!**

 **I claim no ownership of the show, characters, settings or plots. Any resemblance to any real people, paces, or events is entirely coincidental.**

* * *

Regina approached Gold's pawn shop with an unexpected sense of trepidation. Before everything had happened with Emma, it was really Gold's shop, and she knew how to deal with that. Now that Belle had kicked Gold out of Storybrooke, however, the 28 years that she'd held Belle prisoner as an insurance policy against Gold's machinations niggled at her every time she saw the librarian. Facing her alone in the pawn shop was growing more intimidating with every step she took.

The floor gave an ominous creak under her feet when she entered the shop, but Belle looked up with a kind smile. "Regina! What brings you to the shop today?"

She did her best to return the smile. "Hi, Belle. I'm in need of an item you have in your shop. I was hoping you'd let me borrow it, actually."

"Sure thing! What did you need?" Belle asked as she moved around the counter.

"Ah, well, I need to borrow Rumpel's dream catcher," Regina explained, "I got permission from Snow and David to use a dream catcher to look at the last hour of Emma's memories before she pricked her finger. I thought that if I could see one person more than any other on her mind that it might give us an idea of who Emma thinks is her True Love."

Belle's face lit up. ""That's a wonderful idea! Of course you can borrow it." She scurried behind the counter and into the back of the store.

Faced with a few seconds of silence, Regina found herself composing a thought that had gone unexpressed for far too long. When the other woman returned bearing the dream catcher, she was ready.

"Thank you, Belle," Regina began, "I never apologized to you, properly I mean, for keeping you in a cell all those years. I told myself I had a good reason for it, but the truth was there wasn't a reason good enough. It was unconscionable, and I want to apologize. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me eventually."

The expression on Belle's face was one that Regina never expected to see after her apology. The librarian broke out into a huge smile. "You've changed. You're not the woman who did those things in the past, anymore. I think with how hard you're working to save Emma shows that. The whole town knows it. You're not the Evil Queen anymore. I forgave you long ago, Regina. My life here is much better now, especially now that I have the shop and the library, and even though things have been rough lately, I feel like I'm really getting back on track."

Regina could only murmur a stuttered "thank you" through watery eyes and a choked-up throat. She took the dream catcher and made her way out of the shop without another word, but with a mind swirling with all the implications of Belle's response.

* * *

 _01:36_

The red numbers of Regina's clock taunted her. Her impending task dominated her thoughts. Henry was asleep.

It was time.

Weeks and weeks of effort had built to this moment. This was their best chance to wake Emma. Instead of lining up a damned kissing booth, they had a real shot to see who Emma considered the most important person in her life. The magic involved wouldn't pose any real strain on her, so she could begin any time.

With a sigh, she tossed her book off to the side and got to her feet, hearing her ankles and knees pop along the way. After not aging for 28 years, the following four years of natural aging were taking their toll on her body, though magic had been helping. She changed out of her pajamas and into some comfortable athletic pants and a soft cotton shirt. For the work ahead of her, she wanted to be as comfortable as possible.

Tiptoeing out of her room, Regina cast a wary look down the hall, but Henry's door was closed and no light shone underneath. With a small nod, she turned and made her way the opposite direction to the guest room, walking on the balls of her feet to avoid making any noise at all. Opening the door, she moved in and closed it behind her without a sound, butterflies in her stomach growing with each step. With a flick of her wrist, the room was bathed in 60-watt light: bright enough to see what she needed to see but not enough to blind her.

The dream catcher waited on a padded bench at the foot of Emma's bed. She suppressed a snort at the thought. After this experience it would always be 'Emma's bed' in her mind. There was no way her son's birth mother and the woman who fit the descriptor 'friend' more than anyone else had ever done for her would occupy a bed in her house for weeks at a time under a sleeping curse without it becoming hers forever.

Regina picked up the dream catcher, startled to see it wavering in her trembling hands. It wasn't like she'd never read another person's mind with magic, or even with a dream catcher. It _was_ the first time she would be doing this magic with this much importance. If this spell didn't work she was back at the proverbial drawing board.

Closing her eyes, she called her magic. The familiar tingle spread like licking flames under her skin, warm but comforting. She forced her mind to remember the spell, using her conscious thought to include a time limit. That part of the exercise was new to her. Whenever she'd used dream catcher magic in the past, it was always open-ended, she just focused on a particular event or memory she wanted to access, not a time frame of a person's thoughts. She focused on forcing the time frame into the spell as the tingle tracked down her arms, through her fingers, and out into the dream catcher.

When her arms felt normal once more, she opened her eyes. The dream catcher's surface was iridescent with the magic. Streaks of the light shot out toward the bed and surrounded Emma's head. Regina watched the lights play around the blonde tresses, creating a halo effect that sent shivers of fear up and down her spine. Omens played no more role in the Enchanted Forest than they did in Maine, USA, but the sight still unnerved her.

After a few seconds, the lights shot back to the dream catcher and Emma's memories were hers to view. The thought of seeing the images in Emma's own room made her feel dirty, almost like she'd be making Emma a voyeur to her mental violation. She closed the door behind her without a sound and made her way back to her own room, checking to make sure that Henry's room was still silent and dark on the way.

Closing her own door, Regina took a deep breath and felt the nerves return full-force. She wasn't sure what the dream catcher would revel to her, but with the focus of the spell she'd cast and the circumstances surrounding Emma's current condition, it wasn't going to be pretty or pleasant. Taking a deep breath, Regina sat down at the foot of her bed and called her magic forth.

Images began assaulting her mind before she had a chance to brace herself. At first it was a confusing swirl of faces, blurred out by the movement. She had to focus her mind to calm the storm surrounding her. Eventually, she was able to force the magic to show her Emma's thoughts.

The first memory initially confused her. Looking at the world through Emma's eyes, everything was much higher or taller than it should have been. The room was softer, more feminine than she would have expected. There were dark purple flowers painted on the lavender walls along the baseboard, up around the door, and around the windows. A white toddler bed that was much larger than it should have been was covered in purple bedding and tucked into one corner. Piles of stuffed animals and other toys littered the floor, but rather than messy, they looked purposeful. White lacy curtains hung over a window with sun shining through, giving the room a warm, homey feeling. It was the kind of room any child would have loved to call their own.

When other people came into her vision, she realized it was Emma's room. She was in a memory of Emma's from when she was a child. She – Emma – was happily playing with a stuffed unicorn, when the door opened and two adults walked in with somber looks. These were the people who gave Emma her name, Regina realized, the last name she'd never changed because the time she spent with them was the happiest of her foster life.

The woman was rubbing one hand on her stomach while the man guided her into the room.

" _Emma, we have something we need to tell you."_

 _Putting the unicorn down and looking up at her first foster parents, Emma asked, "Why Mama and Dada sad?"_

" _We're not sad, honey, we're just…serious," the mother chimed in. "We're going to have a baby."_

 _The squeal of joy Emma let out startled the older two. "I am a sister?"_

" _Well," the man winced, "not exactly. We can only afford to have one child here in the house, and we can't waste any space."_

" _What you mean, daddy?" toddler-Emma asked._

" _What daddy means is that we won't have room for you in the house with the baby. We're going to have to send you back to the group home," the mother explained._

" _Go away?" Emma asked, voice starting to waver with tears._

" _Daddy will help you pack some clothes and your favorite stuffed animals, but the social worker will be here in half an hour, Emma."_

With that, the two adults left the room, oblivious to Emma flopping back on the floor and bursting into tears. The rest of that particular memory showed the Swans not even looking at Emma, much less hugging her goodbye, as the social worker carted her back to the group home, returned like an ugly sweater.

The memories jumped ahead 25 years or so to when Emma had shown up on Regina's literal doorstep, Henry leading the way. She felt the blonde's extreme nervousness at seeing herself turn into fierce determination to protect her son after his allegations of mistreatment. Threats flew back and forth, but Emma's memories focused in on Regina's promises to destroy her.

Before the guilt could set in too far, Emma's memories went back in time again to when she was a child. Older this time, but still a child. She went to a man who had to have been her foster father at the time. Tall and thin, he had a haggard look about his weather-beaten face. Lank blond hair hung down around his ears, and suspicious blue eyes darted back and forth from other children squabbling in the background and an ancient television in front of him. Emma's attention was fixed on the older man.

" _Mr. Davis? I'm hungry, and my shirt is too cold. Could I have a snack and maybe a sweater?"_

" _Hungry? You're hungry? I ain't got the money for no more food, girl!" he shouted at her. "We fed ya earlier, didn't we?"_

" _Some of the older kids took my food away from me," she pouted, looking at her feet. "I'm still hungry."_

" _Ain't my fault you weren't fast or strong enough. I fed ya. Ain't got no money for a sweater, neither. You're just going to have to learn to live with it," he declared, turning back to his TV._

" _But I'm so cold!" Emma's pout turned into a whine._

 _She never saw it coming. The thin, bony hand impacted her cheek hard enough to rattle her jaw and split the inside of her lip. Emma flew backward, landing hard on her back on the wood floor._

" _I said deal with it, ya worthless baby! Now git upstairs before I have to really spank ya!" Davis shouted._

 _Emma turned away, hiding the tears streaming down her face, and limped up the stairs, arms wrapped around her torso. Dodging older foster children, she made her way to a tiny mattress in the corner of a dilapidated room, situated under a broken, poorly-repaired window. A chilly breeze streamed in directly onto Emma, who lied there, shivering, crying, and bleeding. She ignored the teasing coming from behind her and wept for her loneliness, her hunger, and her pain._

Before Regina could even catch her breath, Emma's memories shifted forward once more. She saw the front page of the Storybrooke newspaper and Sydney's amateurish hatchet job leading up to the sheriff's election. Emma's past, splashed all over the front page for everyone to see. In a first time for her using a dreamcatcher, she could feel Emma's shame burning hot on the back of her neck and in her ears, intensified at the knowledge of her own responsibility.

The vision darkened once more, and when it shifted, Regina could see Emma's feet kicking back and forth as she sat on a chair in a small room. From the angle of the view, the blonde was older this time, but still a child.

" _Miss Swan? You may go in and see the principal now," a nasal voice droned._

 _Emma took a deep breath but hopped down to her feet and turned to a closed door behind a desk where sat a gaunt woman whose face seemed fixed in a perpetual scowl. Approaching the door as if a prisoner to the gallows, Emma pushed it open._

" _Come in, Miss Swan. Sit down, please," called the voice of a surprisingly pleasant-appearing man. He was taller, but with round features that gave him a genial expression, but that quickly soured when Emma took her seat._

" _You wanted to see me, Principal Matthews?" When Emma looked down at her hands, Regina could see for the first time that they were red and swollen._

 _He frowned. "Yes, I did. What do you have to say for yourself?"_

 _Emma swallowed. "I was trying to,"_

" _Because we have the report of one of the students involved, a Tyler Strong, saying that you attacked his friend Rob Bowman for no reason."_

" _No reason? He was shoving some kid in his locker!"_

" _That's not what anyone else has told us. Why are you, the one who started the confrontation, the only person who's said he did anything wrong? That sounds a little suspect."_

" _It's the truth! Rob's a bully! He was shoving the kid in his locker and everyone else was standing around laughing! I had to do something," declared Emma, folding her arms over her chest._

 _Narrowing his eyes, Principal Matthews fixed her with a gaze. "Tyler is the son of a pastor here in town. Why would someone like him lie to me about this?"_

" _To protect his jerky friend," Emma grumped._

" _I doubt it, young lady. You have a reputation as a troublemaker already. Your foster parents warned us about you before you even got here. As a matter of fact," he paused as a knock sounded at the door, "they're here right now to take you home. Three days out-of-school suspension."_

 _Emma gasped, turning to look at the door behind her. A man and a woman, of decidedly less amiable appearance than the principal had worn earlier, waited for Emma. The foster mother in particular was glaring at her. "Don't worry, Principal Matthews. Emma here will be dealt with very severely. I can guarantee she will never get in trouble again," she growled, the last few words sounding almost like bullets fired in the small room. The man seemed content to let his wife speak for him, hanging back without a word._

 _Emma turned back to the principal. "No! Please don't send me home right now! I'll do anything! I'll clean the floors!"_

 _The foster mother grabbed Emma's arm, squeezing it so hard it was sure to leave bruises. "Come along now, Emma. You're going to be punished when we get home."_

 _Emma's tears overrode every other sound on her way out to the car._

The vision dimmed briefly before returning to the same school. This time, Emma was walking down the hall, but the perspective kept making sharp drops and slow climbs. With a gasp, Regina realized Emma was limping.

It changed again, this time revealing the Storybrooke Sheriff's station. Charming stood there with Snow while Jefferson's hat spun on the floor. As a dark shape disappeared into the void, it lunged to grab at Regina herself. With a snarl, Emma jumped to push her out of the way, but was herself sucked down. Her eyes found Regina's as she fell, and Regina watching through Emma's eyes felt a sensation of peace, satisfaction even. The errant thought that at least Henry would be safe and protected flew across her mind before she lost her grip and fell through the portal.

And on it continued, in an endless spiral.

Foster families who never spent enough money on food, leaving Emma at the mercy of crueler older siblings who used food as a bargaining chip to get whatever they wanted from her. Emma usually refused, meaning she was always, eternally hungry. Watching the images, Regina understood how Emma was so skinny still. She was more than used to a less than adequate diet. Even now when she had food, like a cheeseburger from Granny's, her subconscious mind still thought of it as such a treat that she had to wolf it down, so deeply ingrained was her fear of it being taken from her.

She watched as they worked together to move the moon on Neverland, creating an eclipse with nothing more than the power of their united magic. Her own gaze had never wavered from the celestial body, but viewing the memory through Emma's eyes, she saw how the blonde had turned to her in sheer joy and elation that they had succeeded. Regina never saw the happiness in Emma's expression the first time.

Grabby foster brothers and fathers, groping her without her permission and against her will. Regina herself well knew the sense of violation from her forced marriage to Leopold, but Emma was even more helpless against the older, larger, stronger boys – and the fathers, Regina shuddered. When she resisted, she was either beaten or food and water were withheld. It was wrong, debasing, dehumanizing on every possible level. She watched as a sobbing, starving Emma vowed to learn self-defense before she was taken back to a group home. Finally fed up with the abuse, she'd landed a particularly savage kick to the groin of one of her foster fathers. Rather than cop to his depravity, he'd called her a problem child and sent her back.

Again.

After Emma had returned from the past, inadvertently bringing Marian back with her from Regina's own dungeon, Regina got to watch her evisceration of the blonde from the other side.

" _Don't you dare touch me! Get this through your thick blonde skull, Ms. Swan: I don't need you. In fact, Storybrooke doesn't need you! We could get a chimp to do the Sherriff's job, and I wouldn't even be surprised if the paperwork got done faster."… "I'd even go so far as to say that your own parents don't even need you anymore. They've probably got their hands full with that new baby of theirs, wouldn't you say?"… "She reached out one more time for a hug to apologize, but Regina held up her hand. "Don't. Don't touch me. Don't talk to me. Don't call me. As far as I'm concerned, you're nothing. You don't exist."_

Regina saw a parade of scenes of Emma waking up in bed, a cold indentation where a one-night-stand had left after their tepid passion. She saw tear-tracks on Emma's face in the mirror gradually give way to a set jaw and a determination that none of the people she'd chosen for a night's distraction would ever have the power to hurt her again.

She saw an endless sequence of her snide remarks about Emma's intelligence, diet, or fashion sense. At the time the remarks were intended to annoy the blonde, but seeing from the other side, Regina felt how wounding they truly were. Every time she put Emma down, her self-esteem ebbed a little more.

Then she was able to watch what actually happened the night Neal left Emma. She felt the fear as the police officer approached, the devastation when Emma realized there was one of the stolen watches on her wrist, and the betrayal, hot and painful, when she realized Neal wouldn't be coming back. It switched to the view of a positive pregnancy test stick, as folded knees in a hideous orange prison suit supported her. She felt the sheer desperation after Emma brought Henry into the world, refusing to look at him, knowing that if she did she wouldn't have the courage to give him up, to give him his best chance. She saw a nearly endless parade of nights of Emma sobbing herself to sleep.

Alone. In prison. Pregnant. As a teenager.

She saw the memory of their confrontation at the Rabbit Hole. Emma shrunk back in fear as Regina raised her hand to strike the blonde. _"With that attitude and self-destructive nature, Miss Swan, you'll get plenty of chances to be happy all by your lonesome once more."_

Emma's worst fears being realized as Snow and David talked about wanting a baby on Neverland, then actually came back heavily pregnant from the Enchanted Forest struck at Regina's heart. When Emma heard what they named the baby, she felt how much effort it took the blonde to remain stoic while her heart split, one side of pain at the memory of Neal's death with the knowledge that every time someone called her brother by name she'd be reminded of Henry's father, and one side in betrayal at her parents making the decision without asking her what she would have thought about it.

Regina watched in dismay as Snow shielded Neal from Emma when her magic went haywire after another of Regina's verbal beat-downs. She wondered how much abuse one heart could take and still keep beating when Emma accidentally sent the light post falling toward Hook, instead injuring her father. Horrified, the Sheriff could only watch as her mother stood and scolded her, as if she'd done it on purpose.

There was a final sequence of images that started slow, but increased in speed until they were flying almost too fast for her to discern. They were faces, nameless, but all sharing the same characteristics. Anger, hate, lust, fear, rage, and uncounted other negative emotions flew in front of her as they flashed in front of Emma's eyes. Interspersed among them all was a slideshow of Regina's own expression. Smiling, laughing, frowning, fearful, angry, they were all there. Storybrooke, Neverland, the Jolly Roger, and more. It was a montage of almost every moment she'd spent with the blonde. It made her head spin as her own face swam in front of Emma's eyes.

 _Worthless slut._

 _Miss Swan._

 _Troubled child._

 _Deputy._

 _Little bitch._

 _Henry's other mother._

Every image, every insult spat at her, every denigration on her as a person, every vitriol spewed at her chipped away at Emma's humanity, leaving her less of a person and more of a fortified shell.

All at once the images ceased, leaving her alone in Zelena's dank basement. Regina's tearful face swam in front of her own face. In a single moment of silent darkness, the only noise was Emma's anguished whisper. _"I'm so sorry,"_ Emma whispered as she pricked her finger.

As the visions finally stopped, the dream catcher fell from Regina's nerveless fingers with a quiet thud onto the deep pile carpeting.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Regina had one instant of pure, frozen horror at what she'd seen. The world seemed to crystallize around her, brittle and fragile, before the residual anguish from seeing what Emma lived every day of her life – the life she was cursed to thanks to Regina's giving in to Rumpel's machinations – hit her system all at once and the world shattered.

She shattered.

Her stomach gave a violent lurch that told her she had seconds to spare. Rushing into the bathroom, she just barely made it to the toilet before her insides seemed to try to turn themselves inside out.

She crouched, hunched over the cool porcelain, willing her body to cease its rebellion as she shook in horror. Stronger people than Emma had ended their lives over less.

And it was all her fault.

Literally every moment of pain that Emma had suffered in her life could be laid directly or indirectly at her door.

But, if her theory about who Emma thought mostly about during her final moments awake being her True Love was correct… _she_ was the person most commonly featured in Emma's memories.

Preposterous.

There was no way the Savior could love the Evil Queen.

Silly.

She had to find a different way to wake Emma.

One way or another.

She owed her that much.

* * *

 **A/N: Thoughts? Comments? Constructive criticism is always welcome. Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Wow. Just wow. Thank you all for those wonderful reviews! I'm so happy the emotional nature of Regina's viewing Emma's memories read the way I hoped.**

 **Laurathechef is entirely responsible for this chapter being remotely legible :) It may or may not have been in crayon when I sent it to her haha**

 **As always I claim no ownership of the show, characters, plot, or settings. Any resemblance to any real people, places or events is entirely coincidental.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Here you are, Madam Mayor," Ruby said, sliding a glass of ginger ale and a short stack of plain pancakes across the table to Regina.

The idea of any food the morning after the night she spent hugging her toilet was enough to churn her stomach, but the familiar scent had an odd calming effect on her internal distress. "What's this? I just asked for the ginger ale."

"I know, but I thought since you wanted something to settle your stomach instead of your usual coffee, you might like something light and carb-y to help, too. On the house, don't worry about it," Ruby answered her with a grin.

"I'm sorry?" asked Regina, confused at the unsolicited kindness. Even with the way she'd changed after living in Storybrooke, she wasn't used to its residents doing things for her.

Looking around to make sure she was safe from Granny's wrath for perceived slacking off, Ruby slid into the booth across from Regina. "Here's the thing: Snow was my best friend in the old world. In a lot of ways she was like my sister. But since the Curse broke, Emma's become one of my best friends, too."

"I still don't see how that translates into free pancakes for me," Regina deadpanned.

The waitress smiled, but instead of the promise of danger in her wolfish grin, it was a warm, caring expression. "I know what you're doing. The whole town does. We all saw how you took charge after we lost Emma."

With a wry chuckle, Regina took a sip of her ginger ale. "Usually me taking charge has been something most people here have preferred to avoid."

Ruby's eyes narrowed as if she were trying to pierce Regina's soul. "You and I both know that's changed. _You've_ changed. You went through hell in Neverland - I heard anyway - after you stopped the trigger. You absorbed a damn death curse to get Emma and Snow back and you fought your own blood sister for us. You're a hero now, and the whole town knows it."

A lifetime of abusive schooling from her mother and magical training from the Dark One had taught Regina how to plaster on a mask that would show nothing of her inner thoughts to anyone looking at her. That training failed her miserably. Her eyes were the size of saucers and her mouth was hanging open. "You…they do? What happened to the mob that wanted to burn me at the stake after the curse broke?"

"Of course we do! That was a heat-of-the-moment kind of a thing," the waitress folded her hands and leaned over the table, maintaining eye contact to drive her point home, "Think about it: we'd basically just been woken up. Our last memories before the curse were of fighting you. We got our memories back and it was like we were back in the Enchanted Forest. I think once people settled back into life here, and realized that electricity, central heating and air conditioning, not to mention the Internet and indoor plumbing, beat the hell out of scrounging a life out of the mud back home, they started cutting you some more slack. Fighting as hard as you have against the baddies and then working your ass off to help Emma now…well, people notice things like that."

"I really don't know what to say, other than thank you for the pancakes," Regina finally managed, trying to calm her racing heart and steady her suddenly short breath.

"No worries there, Madam Mayor. Granny's orders, and ones I happen to agree with: you eat free here while you're helping Emma. I'll even keep an eye on Henry for you sometimes, if you need the time to wake Emma."

By that point Regina was sure she looked like a goldfish. "Call me Regina, please. And thank you for all you're doing. I appreciate the effort more than I can say."

Ruby rewarded her with a grin and got back to her tables, leaving Regina behind to come to grips with what she'd been told.

* * *

David pulled the door to Granny's open, hearing the bell tinkle as it announced his arrival with Snow. The ringing had always seemed like a gentle, warm way of entering the usually bustling diner, but this morning, his attention was focused on the people inside more than anything else. They were due to meet with Regina to hear about how the dream catcher experiment went the night before. The entire way over, Snow had been too agitated to talk much, knowing not only that they could be close to finding out how to wake their daughter, but also that it might be someone closer than they originally expected that might be able to wake her.

Ruby met them at the door. Instead of gesturing to their usual seat, the waitress gestured to a booth in the corner. Turning, they could see Regina, hunched over a glass of what looked like ginger ale and a plate of half-eaten pancakes. It was enough of a departure from her usual routine that tendrils of niggling worry started crawling up David's spine. Sharing a concerned look with Snow, they moved through the diner to the booth.

"Regina?" Snow greeted as they slid in across from her.

When the older woman looked up at them, Snow gasped at the sight. David had to stop himself from reacting in much the same way.

Regina looked haunted. Dark circles under her eyes belied how little sleep she'd gotten the night before. Her skin was pale, as if she hadn't taken the time for her usual beauty regimen, but it was the absolute fear dominating her expression that took them both aback. "Regina?" Snow repeated. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Regina rasped. She attempted to clear her throat but ended in coughing. "Sorry, my throat's a bit raw this morning."

"Late night?" Charming asked.

The Mayor gave him a dry chuckle. "Try no night at all. I tried coffee but my throat couldn't take the heat."

Snow leaned across the table. "What happened? Did the dream catcher work? Did it tell you who Emma's True Love is?"

Moving back, away from Snow, Regina spread her hands in a defensive posture. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I never said the dream catcher would give me a guaranteed True Love answer. All I said was that I thought that if it could show me Emma's last hour of thoughts, what or whomever she spent the most time thinking of would be the person or thing we could use to wake her up. I wasn't…I wasn't prepared for what I did see."

"What are you talking about?" Snow pressed. "What did you see?"

Regina shook her head. "I can't tell you. I won't tell you."

"What are you talking about? You need to tell us. We're her parents," David declared, surprised by her reaction.

"And if Emma were still a minor that would hold some weight under the laws of this realm. Nevertheless, she is an adult. Think of me as a doctor or psychiatrist. I can't divulge what I saw in her mind, especially regarding her memories."

"Regina!" Snow chided.

With a sigh, Regina turned to the younger woman and tried another tack. "Snow, do you remember when we were fighting to the death in the Enchanted Forest, and I would have done anything to ruin your life, steal your happiness, and in general make your existence as full of misery as I possibly could?"

"How could I forget?"

The corners of Regina's mouth turned upward for the first time that day as she delivered her punchline. "Not even in those days would I have willingly told you the horrors that I saw of Emma's memories last night."

Silence reigned for a moment. The three of them took turns meeting each others' expressions. David cleared his throat. "Are you sure there's nothing you can tell us about it?"

"Think about it this way, shepherd: the version Emma gave Archie in her letter to him was fit for Sesame Street compared to what I saw last night," Regina drawled.

Snow gasped.

Looking at the teacher, Regina nodded. "This raspy throat? When the memories finally finished, I spent most of the next hour hugging my toilet."

"Hence the ginger ale?" asked David.

"Give that man a prize," Regina deadpanned, "When I was the Evil Queen I saw, and caused nightmares beyond most people's comprehension without batting an eye. Seeing what Emma thought about in the last few minutes before putting herself under a Sleeping Curse? I was throwing up like Henry did, back when he was six years old and had too much candy at Miner's Day."

David's eyes were so wide he felt like his eyebrows had disappeared into his hairline. "Seriously? It was that bad?"

With a sigh, Regina fixed him with her most pointed gaze. "Almost any other person would have painted the walls with their brains or jumped off a skyscraper long ago if they'd lived through what she had, especially after the last few years when each and every single one of us piled onto her suffering."

"Oh my God," Snow breathed.

"I know," acknowledged Regina, "We all have a lot of work to do making this up to her."

"We all do?" asked David.

Regina shrugged. "It was my casting the curse that drove the two of you into shoving her in a tree and shipping her alone to Maine. I also cut into her pretty badly when she got back from the past, and again later on. Far be it from me to deny my role in everything."

"So what do we do now?" Snow asked after tensing at Regina's words.

"Well, I for one am going to go talk to Archie," Regina answered, finishing the last of her ginger ale.

"Archie?" wondered David.

Regina nodded. "Emma's had far more psychological trauma in her life than anyone as gentle as her should have had to suffer. I think it would be a good idea for all of us to talk with Archie. We need to know how to handle her when she's awake. I think Dr. Hopper could help prepare us for how she might react. I was actually on my way over there now."

Snow and David shared a look as Regina got to her feet. "Wait! How will we wake Emma up? Did you see who her True Love is?" Snow pleaded.

They watched as a pink tint came to the Mayor's cheeks. She looked flustered for a moment before sliding her composed mask into place. "It was inconclusive," she all but squeaked before hurrying out of the diner.

"Did you see that?" Snow hissed, punctuating each word by pounding David's shoulder. "She got embarrassed and ran out without answering me! It's got to be her that she saw in Emma's memories!"

David chuckled, rubbing the sore area on his upper arm. "Okay, okay, you're convincing me. I think she's right, though. We need to figure out how to handle Emma when Regina wakes her up."

Nodding, Snow took his hand in hers. "We have a lot of things to make up to her. Let's go see Archie later on and then see if Regina will let us in to see her."

"I think it might help things along if we took Regina aside over the next few days and somehow let her know that we don't bear the old grudge anymore. I mean, I'm sure she understands that from how we've been working together, but hearing it from us directly might knock something loose in her and push her to realizing what we think is the truth here," David noted.

Snow gave him a blinding smile. "That's a wonderful idea! Why don't you talk to her first? I have to go get Neal, but you could go to her office with the excuse of it being Sheriff's department business."

Without eating the meal they'd intended on, Snow and David got up and walked out of Granny's, missing the two women seated at the counter following their departure.

"Well, isn't that interesting, Ursula?" Cruella murmured with a sly smile.

"The Savior being kept at the Evil Queen's mansion? That's fascinating, Cruella," the sea-witch grinned. "The question now is whether or not we tell Rumpelstiltskin."

No one in the diner saw the slight shimmer in the reflective metal covering of the counter.

* * *

Rumpelstiltskin moved away from his cabin's only mirror – indeed its only reflective surface – and after draping a thick black cloth over the fixture, moved to the window and looked out at the thick old growth forest. The errant realization that it wasn't really old growth as this world knew it, but instead was artificially created at his own whim and Regina's vision of her happy ending made him giggle.

So, the witches' allegiance was wavering. He didn't put a huge amount of trust in them to begin with, but seeing how they were considering screwing him over, his whatever faith he had in their help evaporated.

It was time to make alternative plans.

The author's location wasn't terribly hard to determine. Once the mansion proved empty except for blank storybooks that matched Henry's, it was easy to guess that the Apprentice had trapped him in Henry's book. He could still write, but he was in a prison so unique that it would take either a genius or an extremely powerful magic user to free him.

After centuries of living, Rumpelstiltskin just happened to be both.

If the Savior was being kept at Regina's, his former pupil would have established powerful barrier spells around her residence to keep out anyone but those she deemed trustworthy. Regina's magic was nowhere near the match for his, but she was still someone to be careful with.

First he would get the key to free the Author. Then he would deal with the traitorous witches.

Then he would get the Savior's blood.

Then he would get his happy ending.

* * *

Regina sat alone in her office. She'd dismissed her secretary for an early lunch, needing to come to grips with the conversations she'd had that morning. The warmth and kindness from Ruby was so unexpected it was as if aliens had landed in front of Town Hall. To be told that not only did few townspeople still bear a grudge against her but also that there were many who were happier in their new land than the old, and topping that off that they saw her working hard at redemption and appreciated it?

She was far outside her comfort zone. Used to open hatred in the Enchanted Forest – which was what had necessitated her practice of taking hearts to control the unruly among her subjects – and fear in Storybrooke during the Curse giving way to disdain, the warmth in Ruby's profession of friendship came as a total surprise.

It made facing the bigger dilemma in her life that much easier, though. She stood up from her desk to pace around the office. Walking always helped her thought process, and the times in her life when she needed clear thoughts more than at that moment were few and far between.

By her own theory, Emma's final conscious thoughts identified herself as the Savior's True Love. Regina sighed as she looked out the window behind her desk. It wasn't as if she'd never been attracted to women in the past; there were several among her chambermaids that had caught her eye in her past life. Attraction to Emma Swan was a given. The woman was vibrant, strong, and gorgeous, if overly skinny from a lifetime of inadequate caloric intake. Regina shook off the errant thought of putting some meat on Emma's bones with her cooking; it felt a little too domestic for a reality she wasn't prepared to confront yet.

But being attracted to Snow's daughter? If the irony were any thicker she'd climb Mt. Olympus to find whatever deity had decreed such a twist in her fate and beat them senseless with their own scepter. The spawn of the person who had caused her more trouble than any other living being save possibly Rumpelstiltskin himself being her potential True Love was ridiculous.

And yet…

She missed Emma.

There was a hole in her life without Emma's presence. If she was being honest with herself, the void had been there since the blonde's return from the past, but had only intensified since she put herself under the Sleeping Curse. No one was ever able to verbally spar with her the way Emma was, despite her lack of formal education. Her spirit and quick wits made her a formidable foe. Whenever they went toe to toe over anything, be it the way Henry was raised – despite Regina's feelings that as his primary parent allowing Emma to have time to see him she should have had the final word in all matters – to the various and sundry threats to Storybrooke's safety (where again she should have had final say as Mayor), Emma refused to take any of her crap.

And she was gone. But _not_ gone, Regina shook her head to get rid of the negative thought. Simply temporarily unavailable. The sudden clench around her heart was nothing more than missing someone that had become a dear friend, a worthy co-parent to their shared son, and a cherished adversary. Nothing more.

Nor were the tears moistening her eyes, threatening to overflow onto her cheeks anything more than that.

Not at all.

* * *

"Come in, Deputy," she called, ever formal.

David entered the office, hesitating briefly when he saw evidence of tear tracks down Regina's cheeks. Whatever she'd been doing or thinking about had upset her greatly. "Regina?" he asked, approaching slowly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, David. Do you have the forms from the Sheriff's Department?" she deflected, looking away to her desk.

He grinned at her evasion, but held up the requested folder. "Yeah, I brought them over, but first I want to know why you're so upset."

"I'm not upset. I'm perfectly fine, Deputy," she snapped, unwilling to let her earlier vulnerability show to someone far deeper in her circle than Ruby.

Settling into the chair in front of her desk, his grin became a smirk. "Well, then I won't hand over this folder until you tell me what's really going on."

So used to blustering, her defensive posture weakened in an instant. "Why are you being so persistent about this? It's not as if you actually care about my emotional state," Regina protested, folding in on herself.

His expression turned caring. "Believe it or not, I think we're more alike than you realize."

She snorted. "Whatever. Oh dear God Henry and Emma are rubbing off on me. I can't believe I just said that."

David chuckled. "I see it like this: you never wanted to be a queen. You wanted the simple life with the stable boy. I was the same way: all I ever wanted was to be a shepherd on my family's farm. I never wanted to be royalty. It just happened when I met Snow. At the time I didn't know who she was but…"

"But life happened, didn't it?" Regina finished with no note of questioning in her tone.

"Life happened," he agreed, nodding. "Anyway, my point is that I think I understand you more than you give me credit for, plus there's the whole thing where you literally saved my life before we came back here from Neverland. The slate between us is clean as far as I'm concerned, and I know you're having some trouble with everything that's happened. Talk to me. We're family."

She scoffed, which he recognized as another evasion. "That's a bit of a stretch, dear. I may have once been your wife's stepmother, but that was eons and worlds ago."

"You're also the co-parent of my grandson. Emma may be his birth mother, but the way you've allowed her back into his life speaks volumes," David answered.

The firm steady tone he used brought her attention back to his face. No mocking or pity showed in the man's expression. It was unnerving to be on the receiving end of such kindness from a former enemy, but maybe that was the Savior's – Emma's – real job: not just breaking the curse, but bringing peace wherever she went. "The tension over the past few months briefly overwhelmed me, but I'm firmly back in control, as you can see. Now, what official business did you bring for us to discuss?" she snarked, but there was no venom behind her words.

David's grin came back full-force. "Well, since you insisted so kindly."

"Whatever," Regina responded before rolling her eyes at herself again.

* * *

 **A/N: The awkwardness of early season 2 notwithstanding, I love the possibility of a Charming/Regina friendship. They play off each other fairly well. I can't wait for more of their scenes.**

 **What did you think? Reviews are like chocolate!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hello there! So glad you're here to read the newest chapter in my little story. I'm trying to keep to an update every week but life is getting very busy so I don't know if I'll be able to hold to that.**

 **Laura the chef was awesome at getting this chapter ready to go. All credit, seriously.**

 **The author claims no ownership of the show, characters, settings, or plots. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Regina approached Henry in Granny's as he hunched over his story book. "What are you doing, sweetheart?"

He looked up and smiled at his adoptive mother. "Another Operation, Mom. I was reading this book again when I realized that most of what's in here is written from the hero's point of view. It only ever shows you as the Evil Queen, not Regina. So, maybe if we could find the Author somehow, like if he was in Storybrooke like so many others from the Enchanted Forest, we could show him you've changed and maybe convince him to write you a happy ending."

"Darling, that's a wonderful idea!" his mother exclaimed, clapping her hands.

Narrowing his eyes, Henry tried to figure out what caused the strange outburst. She'd never been prone to demonstrations of excitement before, but maybe the chance at finding her Happy Ending elicited more than she could control. Still, something was off. "Th – thanks, mom. So, I'm just combing through the book, trying to find something that could help us figure out who the Author is."

His mother gave him a knowing look. "But don't you have homework to do? Run along darling and take care of that. I'll take a turn looking for our mysterious Author."

Henry did a double-take at that command. It was so unlike the way his mother usually spoke to him that he had to stop and look to make sure it was really her. "Okay, Mom," he answered in a slow, measured tone, "I guess I'll see you at home then?"

"That you will. I'll just have a shake here and look over the book. Maybe something will strike me. I'll have a pizza waiting when you get home," she answered with a smile that was just a bit wider than he was used to seeing from her.

With one more odd look at his mother, Henry turned and walked out of Granny's, glancing back over his shoulder to see her poring over the book. He shook his head free of the doubts plaguing him.

* * *

Once he was gone, Regina stood up, closed the book, and followed his path out of the diner, turning down an alley between Granny's and the building next door. As soon as she was out of sight of the other patrons, she wiggled her fingers. A shimmer of light enveloped her as the glamour spell faded to reveal Rumpelstiltskin himself.

"Having the heart of the truest believer can sometimes make you useful, my dear grandson," he rumbled to himself as he teleported back to his cabin, storybook securely in his grasp.

* * *

Regina flipped through a photo album as she reclined on a chair in Emma's room. As the blonde slept on, she gazed at her face on film. Seeing Emma's face in happier times, almost always with Henry. With every new image, whether it was Henry and Emma laughing as they played a video game, or a candid shot of them having dinner at Granny's, the pang in her chest became harder to ignore.

Denial was becoming harder and harder to maintain.

The signs had been in front of her all along. The fact that she'd missed how Emma had wormed her way into Regina's life without her even being aware of the woman's efforts was stunning. The skinny, stubborn woman had been able to do what no one else ever had – get through Regina's defenses and become part of her life against her will.

From the first moments Emma had shown up with her son and a promise that she was leaving to the breaking of that promise, to their joint efforts opening portals, defusing triggers, and moving actual planetary bodies together, their lives had gradually become so entwined that Regina now no longer had any pangs in her chest at the thought of allowing Henry to spend time with his birth mother. Well, at least that's how she'd felt before Emma had gone to the past and inadvertently stolen away her…what?

Regina furrowed her brow, looking down at a beatific smile frozen on Emma's face as she hugged Henry. She tried to define what exactly the blonde had stolen from her but the farther away she got from the moment, especially with the knowledge of Emma's final hour of memories playing in her own mind on repeat, the less she was able to put a term on it. At one point she considered Robin Hood to be her True Love, as identified by the pixie dust and the damned lion tattoo, but his wife still being alive seemed to put paid to that particular notion.

Sitting back in her chair, Regina took a moment to consider the failure of her relationship with her supposed soulmate in Robin Hood. It wasn't either of their faults. She'd even lost the desire to blame Emma for her mistake. It was just a gigantic failure of circumstance. She couldn't expect Robin to stay with her when his actual wife was there. Regina sighed, thinking about what it meant for her. It was a given in the Enchanted Forest that the lucky few would find their True Loves in some way, but it didn't happen to everyone. Regina snorted; the fairies made much importance of themselves for their ability to grant wishes in order to maintain their position within the White kingdom. Living in this world during the Dark Curse had exposed her to a different way of thinking, one much more in line with her mindset after shoving her mother through the portal: that she was in control of her own destiny.

Thirty years before the idea of finding love with anyone related by blood to Snow White would have had her in a laughing fit before fireballing the idiot who suggested it out of existence. Now though…Emma Swan was changing her mind, a thought staggering in and of itself.

She looked over at the sleeping woman. The only part of her that didn't put the photographs to shame was her expression. No one in a cursed sleep smiled, which on Emma made her look somber. In the image Regina kept of Emma in her mind, the other woman had the encouraging smile she wore in Neverland when it seemed they'd never beat Pan in time to save Henry, or in Storybrooke when they needed her courage to help defeat Zelena. Emma always seemed to be ready to support everyone around her.

Regina got to her feet and moved over to the blonde's bed. Looking more closely at her, she began to realize that her impressions were based on memories. Whatever hell the younger woman had endured during her last few weeks before cursing herself had taken a terrible toll. For the first time she noticed how Emma's sunken cheeks, visible ribs, and protruding pelvic bones all indicated a far less than ideal diet, especially for a woman without an ounce of extra fat to lose.

Her skin had a sallow, sickly tone to it, and her hair, once as lustrous as Rumpel's famous spun gold, was lank.

She wondered when the last time Emma had eaten before putting herself under the sleeping curse. The more she looked at the younger woman, the more she thought it was a question of days, not hours. Regina felt twin pangs of pity and guilt so strong she had to put her hand on her chest, so strongly was her heart pounding.

The evidence was beginning to be too much to ignore.

Physical attraction? Check.

Emotional empathy and caring? Check.

Evidence that the blonde cared for her as well? Check.

Just as Regina sighed and put her head in her hands, she heard the front door opening and closing, followed by the heavy footsteps that announced Henry's arrival. Leaving her surprising revelations to Emma's room, she made her way down the stairs.

"Henry? What are you doing home?"

The look of shock on his would have been comical had she not been the cause. "Mom?! How did you beat me home?"

"Beat you home? Honey, I've been home all afternoon, trying to figure out how to wake your mother up."

He gaped, concern spreading across his normally genial expression. "But…but…but," he stammered.

Seeing the worry spread across his entire being raised her motherly hackles. "What's wrong?"

"Didn't you just now have me give you my book to study at Granny's? You said you'd have a pizza waiting for me when I got home," declared Henry, studying her face for any signs she was kidding him.

"I've been here all afternoon, Henry. I haven't stopped trying to find a magical way of waking Emma," she explained at a slow, clear pace.

"Then, who was at Granny's?" he asked, concern giving way to real worry, "and who has the book?!"

Regina raised her hands. "Someone has your book? What happened?"

"I was at Granny's studying my book for some clue about the Author when you came in. Or at least I thought it was you. Anyway, you said that I should go home and do my homework. You – or whoever that was – said that they'd look over the book and have a pizza waiting for me for dinner," explained the boy, searching his memory for everything he could remember.

"And that wasn't your first clue that something was weird?" Regina smiled at him, hoping humor could distract him from what happened. "Think a minute. What else happened? Was there anything this person did that didn't seem like me in any way?"

"Well," he thought, scrunching up his face, "you called me 'darling' a lot, which you don't really do. You've always called me 'dear'."

"Darling?" Regina clarified, feeling a memory click into place. "I know who we're dealing with. Henry, you can have that pizza for dinner tonight. I'll have one delivered, but I need to get over the Snow and Charming's," she answered, getting to her feet and grabbing her purse.

He followed her to the door. "Mom? What's going on? Who was pretending to be you?"

She hesitated, weighing how much he hated being lied to versus telling him something that would worry him without good reason. Settling on the truth, she looked him right in the eye. "The only person I know who says 'darling' that much is Cruella. I need you to stay here, stay out of sight, and stay safe. I'll do one better than I promised earlier," she said, waving her arms and conjuring a steaming hot pizza on a pan on the table, "There, now no one even has to come here to deliver. Stay safe, Henry. I don't know what Cruella and Ursula, since they came here together, are up to, but I need to keep an eye on them, okay?"

Henry nodded with wide eyes, understanding her seriousness. "I'll stay here, promise."

Regina gave him a tight smile. "My brave little prince."

Without another word, she disappeared in a swirl of violet smoke.

* * *

Snow leaned across the table to whisper to her husband, lest the entire diner hear what they were discussing. She didn't want to think of the uproar that would ensue if Snow White and Prince Charming themselves were discussing ways to get the Evil Queen to wake the Savior with True Love's kiss. "So Emma hasn't woken up yet, which means that Regina either hasn't figured it out or she's actively in denial about everything."

David grinned. He wasn't entirely sure in the immediate aftermath of finding their daughter, but Snow wasn't letting go of her belief and her sheer vehemence had won him over. "Okay, I give, I give. I just don't know how you expect to nudge her in that direction. She's not exactly the kind of person to take direction well, especially from us."

"I know! I just hope she figures it out soon, otherwise we're going to have to take more drastic measures, but I have no idea what those would be!" she exclaimed.

His reply was lost in silence that followed the clatter of Granny's doorbell. Normally a quiet room wouldn't have overridden his voice, but in this particular case where a fork hitting the floor would have echoed, the silence drowned out all other noise.

Maleficent walked in.

Calling her entrance walking would have been unfair to walking. Maleficent marched into the diner like she owned the place. Scanning the room, her gaze finally rested on the stunned Snow and David. "Ah, just the people I wanted to see," she declared.

The rest of the diner's patrons gave her a wide berth as she made her way through the restaurant. When she got to the Charmings' table, she looked at Snow and gave her head a sideways jerk. "Sit over there with him. I need to talk to you two."

Snow scurried out of her seat and next to her husband, clasping his hand in an iron grasp born of terror. "David!" She hissed.

"Calm down, Snow. We'll be safe here," he reassured her, fighting off his wince at a grip the strength of which he hadn't felt since she was in labor.

Maleficent rolled her eyes and sat down across from them. "Relax, you two idiots. I'm not here to kill you. This time, anyway." She nodded to Ruby as the girl approached. "Water, please."

"What do you want?" asked Snow.

The older woman snorted. "Luckily for the two of you, I'm in a good mood today. The Dark One showed me my daughter. She's alive, and in this world."

Two gaping mouths greeted her statement. Maleficent sighed. "Yes, I know. It's a miracle. Anyway, I figured that since the two of you did what you did in sending her to this world, you owed it to me to help me find her."

David caught up to himself first. "But how are we supposed to help you? We can't exactly leave the town. Once over the line, you lose all memory of who you are."

"So what are we going to do about this?"

The Charmings shared a look. Snow looked back at their former adversary and offered an olive branch. "Well, our daughter is good at finding people. It's what she did before…"

"Before she killed me, you mean?" Maleficent interjected, acid dripping from every word.

"That was different. The Dark One arranged this whole thing. He told me to hide the egg in your ear," David hurried to explain, "and he told her to get it back. He orchestrated the entire Dark Curse as a way of getting to this realm to find his son. He manipulated Regina, he manipulated me, he manipulated Emma, he did all of this."

For the first time in their conversation, the older woman sat back and took in what they were saying. It certainly made sense that the Dark One set events in motion that affected so many lives. He was known for his machinations, and finding one's lost offspring was a powerful motivator, as she was discovering. "Well," she said slowly, "If your daughter can cross the town line and is good at finding people, let's go get her. If she helps find my Lily, I won't try to kill the two of you anymore."

"It – it's not that simple," Snow stammered, fearing the reaction her words would generate.

"Of course it isn't. When is anything with you two ever that easy?" Maleficent growled. "What's the problem this time?"

"Our daughter is temporarily indisposed," David said, laying both his hands on the table, "It's a long story, but she put herself under the Sleeping Curse."

"Well why haven't you two idiots kissed her awake yet?" the blonde asked, stupefied.

Snow leaned forward, the anger of a mother defending her child coursing through her. "Don't you think that's the first thing we tried?" she hissed. "There are…reasons why we were unable to wake her."

"Well?"

"We sent her to this world through an enchanted wardrobe just before the Dark Curse hit because Rumpelstiltskin told us she was fated to find us on her twenty-eighth birthday and break the curse," David sighed, knowing how bad his words would sound to this person more than any other.

Maleficent gave a dry, humorless chuckle. "You are certainly the experts at sending babies through portals, aren't you? Is that what heroes do?"

"He just told you: it was foretold that she would break the Curse. We did what we had to do," Snow ground out, "In any event, reasons are immaterial. We're still stuck with the reality that we can't wake Emma."

"Do you have any idea who can, then?" Maleficent asked, quirking an eyebrow skyward.

David and Snow shared a conspiratorial look. "Funny you should mention that…" Snow began, allowing a smile to cross her face for the first time.

* * *

The weight of embarrassment hung heavy on Regina's shoulders as she gave her front door a slow push closed. On her way home she'd reflected on the many embarrassing moments she'd had at Granny's Diner over the years. Henry's early tantrums and food-spilling had mortified her until she realized that Storybrooke's citizens, even in their cursed personalities, understood that children made messes and it wasn't a slight on her.

Not being invited to Emma and Snow's 'welcome back' celebration was bad enough, but not quite on the level of what she'd just had to do. Slinking into Granny's, asking customers if they'd noticed which way she'd headed earlier because she'd dropped her book and was so lost in thought about how to wake the Savior she'd forgotten where she'd walked was the low point. Storybrooke's citizenry had looked at her like she was losing her mind.

Maybe she was.

Regina leaned her forehead against the cool metal of the fireproof door, seeking a desperate moment of relief. The strain of trying to wake Miss Sw…Emma along with taking care of her son, keeping an eye on the Charmings, and listening for any disturbances linked to the town's newest arrivals was getting to her. One solid night of sleep was all she needed. Just one. She closed her eyes, even while standing against the door, thinking that if she could just…

A knock on the other side of the door from where her head rested startled her so much that she jumped backward two full feet. Henry's light had been on when she got home – always the first place she looked when arriving back at her house – and the Charmings weren't visiting that she could recall.

Even still it was probably Snow stopping by to give her another hope speech, she grumbled to herself before dragging the door open again. "I told you, Snow: I'm working on it, and I still haven't made any progress!"

All her movement stopped at once seeing a raised blond eyebrow.

"Well, I'm not exactly Snow White, dear, but I hope I'll do," Maleficent drawled, the corners of her mouth quirking upward in the beginnings of a smirk.

Regina's own mouth moved up and down in an effort to speak but no words came out.

"Come now, Regina. You act as if you've seen a ghost," said the blonde as she strolled into the house, doffing her coat and holding it out to the Mayor.

Finding her voice, Regina took the garment and hung it on the hooks nearby, shaking her head. "That's because I have. You ARE a ghost. Emma killed you. How the hell are you here?"

"I was brought back," Maleficent responded, moving into the living room to inspect the dwelling, "Not resurrected. A far cry from your old castle, but I guess in this drab world you have to make due."

"That's impossible!"

"That your…house is drab? Not impossible. I'm standing right here. As for being returned to my true form? Nothing is impossible if One particular magical being has enough power," answered the other witch.

Moving after her former friend into the living room, Regina stared. "There's only one magic user with enough power to…" she trailed off as the implications struck.

"Exactly, dear. He's back."

Taking a deep breath to regain her composure, Regina looked at Maleficent. The Dark One's magic was as efficient as ever. Not a hair out of place on her head and dressed in a suit of this world, she looked nonetheless ready for action as always. Seeing someone she once counted as a friend back in the flesh after almost forty years drove fresh waves of guilt.

"I know there's no way I can truly apologize to you for what I did. Living here, and especially living through what's happened in my life the last few years has taught me so much, has changed me so much. I can't begin to express how much I regret the decisions of my past life. I'm sorry for everything. If there is still room in your heart for me, I would like to begin working my way back into your friendship," she declared, looking down at her hands. Whatever expression might be on Maleficent's face in that moment, she wasn't brave enough to see.

There was a long silence. At last too antsy to wait any longer, Regina looked up to see the blonde blinking rapidly, taken aback at her words.

"I accept your apology, Regina, but whether or not we can return to the friendship we had in the old world, I just don't know. What you did to me was unnecessary, un-called for. I did nothing to you to deserve that kind of punishment," Maleficent answered with a wavering voice that drew strength from her own words.

"In any event, the Dark One has been successful. Taking the book from your son – and believe me when I say that when all this is over, we WILL be discussing you having a son – Rumpelstiltskin was able to deduce where the Sorcerer imprisoned the man and set him free."

Regina watched the blonde's face turn from somber to teasing to worrisome in the span of a few sentences. "So why haven't we all been written back to the Enchanted Forest as slaves to the Dark One's every whim?" she threw out, hoping that he flippancy was deserved.

Maleficent chuckled, flexing her fingers as if trying to conjure something into her hand, but failing to generate anything more than a few sparks. She grunted at her rusty magic's refusal to obey her will.

"You'll get the hang of it after a while," Regina explained, "Magic is different here. What were you trying to summon?"

Another chuckle. "It's been almost forty damned years trapped as an overgrown lizard. I want a drink!"

Regina returned the smile, hesitant at first, waiting to see if it would be accepted. When Maleficent kept her grin, she wiggled her own hand, summoning a heavy crystal tumbler of her finest cider to appear in her old friend's hand.

Wrinkling her nose at the sweet smell of the drink, Maleficent took a tentative sip. Her eyebrows raised at the way the tangy sweetness of the apples exploded on her tongue as the bubbles danced their way across her palate. She took a much bigger, more appreciative drink. "We never had anything like this in the Enchanted Forest," she breathed.

Regina's answering smile grew in force and warmth. "I came across this in my first few years here. Juice from my apple tree, fermented with a specific kind of yeast. It took me a while to get the balance of sugar and alcohol right, but this drink has magic all its own."

The blonde looked at her, seeing the simple joy of Regina's pride at something she'd created. "So it's true. Rumpel said you'd essentially abandoned Dark Magic for White in this world. He said you were going soft."

"It is true," Regina affirmed, "I have gone to the Light Side of the Force," she rolled her eyes at the reference. Too many viewings of the Star Wars films with Henry growing up had imprinted that universe's mythos into her brain.

"The what?" Maleficent looked entirely lost

Shaking her head, Regina waved off the irrelevancy, "It's a popular culture reference from this world. Tell you what, if we get through whatever's about to happen together, I'll get you caught up on what you've missed."

"Anyway, Rumpelstiltskin has the man, but the man does not have his tools. Namely, his enchanted ink," the blonde finally answered Regina's question from several minutes before.

"And without the enchanted ink, he has no power. He's actually worse off than those damned fairies with their wands," breathed Regina.

"Yes. Whatever did you do with those annoying moths, by the way?"

White magic user or not, Regina's answering smirk was as wicked as any Zelena could muster. "I made them all nuns. Religious figures in this world, dedicated to lives of celibacy, cloistered together, more or less away from society."

Maleficent's laughter echoed deep and rich off the walls. "That's almost enough to make up for trapping me as a dragon. Brilliant, Regina. Brilliant."

"Thank you."

"Anyway, there's apparently only one way the Dark One can give the Author the ink he needs for his happy ending," Maleficent went on, "and that's with the tainted blood of a powerful White Magic user."

"Emma," Regina whispered, dread forming a leaden ball in the pit of her stomach.

"The same one who threw a stick through my guts," Maleficent nodded, "I can admit I wouldn't exactly mind seeing him spike the little bitch, though I don't really relish the thought of what Rumpelstiltskin's happy ending might be, especially with the Author himself under his protection."

"So why are you telling me this? Why warn me?" Regina asked.

"The Dark One, as a condition of my participation in his little scheme, showed me a vision, that my daughter is alive in this world. Talking with Prince Charming and Snow White in whatever the hell a diner is, they said their daughter, who just happens to be the one who broke your curse, has a great deal of skill in finding people. They also said that you were working on a way to wake her from a self-imposed Sleeping Curse? My gods, Regina, if we can send Rumpelstiltskin on his merry way, you're going to have to sit down and explain all the ins and outs of this crazy little town of yours."

Regina goggled, but Maleficent plowed on before she could answer. "This is merely a warning. The Dark One doesn't need her alive; he just needs her blood. I need her alive to help find my daughter. Then we can hash it all out and figure out where we stand. Wake the girl up, Regina. Beat Rumpel at his own game and we'll put a stop to this madness."

So saying, the blonde downed the last of her drink and got to her feet. "I'll show myself out. I suspect you have a lot of thinking to do," she challenged.

The sound of the front door closing was the only sound in the house, but it was almost drowned out by the blood rushing through Regina's ears at all the information she'd just learned.

* * *

"So what would you like me to write for you first?" Isaac asked, twisting his fingers together as he tried to calm his nerves. The dark atmosphere in the pawn shop set him on edge. Then again, maybe it the company. He wasn't exactly used to being in the presence of so much dark magic.

The Dark One gave a malevolent chuckle. "Nothing yet. You and I both know that pen of yours is useless, dearie. There's no way for you to write without the ink, and there's no ink here in Storybrooke."

Isaac goggled at him. "Then why the hell did you bother freeing me from that damned two-dimensional prison?"

Rumpelstiltskin grinned. "Because I know where we can get the tainted blood we need to make the ink."

"So what are we waiting for?"

"It won't be easy. The source is…well-guarded."

With a wry look, Isaac huffed and paced around the pawn shop. "Well then, what shall we do?"

"We?" Rumpelstiltskin chuckled, but his tone turned deadly serious as he fixed the lanky man in place with a glare, " _We_ don't do anything, Author. I will handle everything. It won't be easy; Regina was always my best pupil. Rest assured, though, that we will triumph. I will get that blood to make the ink. And you will give me my happy ending."

* * *

 **A/N: We're getting down to the wire here. I never did like Mr. Gold.**

 **Thoughts? Comments, reviews, and constructive criticism always welcome!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: As always, big thanks to everyone who left a review, favorited, or alerted this story. Your support has been phenomenal as I make my way into this fandom.  
**

 **Laurathechef did awesome beta work, as always. Insert standard claim of non-ownership here. Any and all resemblances to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.**

 **I had to update chapter 8 - a scene got left out entirely by accident, so if you've read that one already, there's a new scene posted. My apologies!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"This isn't working!" Rumpelstiltskin hissed, pacing around the cabin. "Regina's protection spells are taking too long to break!"

Maleficent and Ursula shared a silent look as the Dark One's anger intensified. He'd grown progressively more frustrated with each passing moment, and even the Author had taken to getting out of his way, sitting off to the side and jotting down badly-constructed plot ideas.

"It's just a simple barrier spell, darling. What's so complicated about breaking it?" drawled Cruella.

He blew out a snort. "It's more than just a barrier spell when it's Regina. She was always my best pupil. Her spells are difficult even for me to break. The amount of energy required would drain me of magical energy. Energy that I need to defeat Regina and get to Emma Swan!"

Ursula rolled her eyes. "Of course. So what do you propose we do? Start kidnapping people left and right?"

In the act of opening his mouth to shut down her suggestion, the Dark One froze, mouth open, and considered her words. Ursula saw the gears in his mind turning and backed away from her earlier statement. "Wait a moment; that might just be the thing!" He exulted.

"What's he talking about?" asked Maleficent from another corner.

Waving his hand, Rumpelstiltskin shushed her question. "Kidnapping! We have to do something to get Regina to dissolve her barrier spell. Something that would lure her out. Something that only she could handle. Something…magical…"

"Like what?" Cruella pressed, leaning forward in her chair by the window.

The Dark One began pacing the room, flinging his hands around to emphasize his points. "I will have a job for each and every one of you to handle. There will need to be a precise timetable to coordinate our efforts, but with this last movement, I believe we will be successful, and at last get our Happy Endings." He took in the three dubious expressions greeting his announcement. With a sigh, Rumpelstiltskin began explaining what each of their tasks would be in his grand plan.

"That's all well and good," commented Ursula, "But what will your own role in this grand scheme be?"

At that Rumpelstiltskin let out an evil chuckle. "I will play a different part in our little drama. An ace in the hole, as it were."

"And this will bring Regina out of hiding?" Maleficent asked, staring him right in the face.

His face transformed into a disturbing grin. "All that will get her attention, and in her new role as benevolent leader, she will have no choice but to respond. If that fails, there is one other thing I will handle personally." The last word turned into a hiss not unlike a serpent.

The three witches shared worried looks when he turned to look out the window at the town, but none of them seemed to know what to do next. Rumpelstiltskin seemed hell-bent on destroying a significant portion of the town along with its people as long as it got him the ability to write himself a new happy ending, but living in this world had mellowed their outlook somewhat. They didn't want a bloodbath to birth their happiness.

"Well, I think I'll turn in before going on a flight around the area at dawn so I know where everything is. Relatively new here and all," Maleficent drawled, "Would you two come with me and get me caught up on this world before I go to sleep?" she asked Cruella and Ursula.

Taking her hint, the other women got up and followed her into the back bedroom, leaving Rumple to his schemes.

* * *

"DAVID!"

Ruby's frantic shout as feet pounded the sidewalk behind him made him whirl around, ready to defend Snow and Neal against whatever was coming at them. When he saw the werewolf running toward them, his posture relaxed, but just enough to avoid drawing a weapon. Walking to the sheriff's station from breakfast at Granny's was their usual casual morning routine, taking in the usually-brisk Maine air as a good wakeup start to their work days.

The new boardwalk built the previous fall had stood up to the intense Maine winter thus far and it had become one of their favorite strolling places when the winds whipping in off the Atlantic Ocean weren't too bitter. Unfortunately, on this morning they were and thus the Charming family made their way directly from Granny's to the station to begin their day.

The shout from behind him changed their plans. "Ruby? What's wrong?"

"Smoke!" the waitress gasped, trying to catch her breath, "Smoke in the air coming from inland. The forest northwest of town!"

David and Snow turned to look in the direction Ruby had indicated and saw the faintest wisps of grey wafting above the tree line. The almost-smoke was clearly coming from one spot, however. "Call the fire department and lead them to the fire. They're mostly Regina's old Guard from the Enchanted Forest, and they're very good," he instructed Ruby. At her nod, she was off. Turning to his wife, he gave her a tight smile. "Take Neal and go to the school. You'll be safest there, and you can rally the town to that location if this gets out of hand. I'll call the town hall and get the alert out."

Snow nodded as they turned away from the sea and back to the town. Ruby, having shifted into her wolf form for a faster trip to the fire station, was already half a mile away. David gave his wife a kiss as he dashed off to the Sheriff's station.

Bursting in the door, he raced for his desk phone and punched in the number for Town Hall. "This is the Acting Sheriff. Fire has been detected in the forest. Sound the alarm and get people out of the woods."

As he ran to his cruiser, David hoped the fire was small and easily contained.

* * *

It wasn't.

Standing in the now-familiar clearing, David felt his heart sink. Zelena's farm house was engulfed in flames that the Storybrooke Fire Department didn't seem able to extinguish. He looked around and found the fire marshal standing by Storybrooke's only fire truck, barking orders at the volunteer force.

The fire remained persistent, with no effort from the firefighters even coming close to killing the flames. "What's going on with this fire?" David shouted over the commotion.

The Marshal turned from his radio, his long greying hair flapping in the breeze. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing at my fire?" He growled.

David gave what he hoped was an easygoing grin, attempting to defuse the man's ire. "I'm the acting Sheriff, so I wanted to see what I could do to help."

"You can get the hell back! This fire's growing like a son of a bitch no matter what we throw at it," the older man growled.

"What can I do to help secure the scene?"

"Get your deputy," the Marshal jerked his head toward Ruby as she ran around the house, "and set up a perimeter.

Knowing there wasn't anything he could do about the fire, David passed along the instructions to Ruby, who took the caution tape and started stringing it around the fire trucks. As he watched, he heard a piercing scream coming from the house. Every head swung and riveted on the sound, which David's mind calculated was coming from the upper bedroom window.

As the firefighters grouped at the front side of the house and wrestled the hoses into place, David stared at the same bedroom window he'd gazed out of during their stays keeping an eye on Regina. A shadowy figure passed behind the panes, which drew a chorus of shouts from the people below. He tried to stare harder into the room, remembering where the furniture had been, but he couldn't see the shadow again.

He moved past the barriers and up closer to the house, ignoring the fire marshal's shouts. As he approached, the flames shot forward as the heat blasted out at him, so intense he had to fall back. The figure made its way past the window with another scream. David made his way around the building, trying to find another way in to help the person screaming.

Every time he approached the house, the flames blasted out as if powered by a switch. When he backed off, they died down. Any other fire and he would have been glad to let it burn itself out, but the spectral figure screaming for help in growing intensity was pushing them to do something, anything. When they finally got the hoses connected to the town's one fire truck capable of transporting water to a fire, they started spraying from three angles. David watched, waiting for the fire to sputter out.

Except, it never happened.

If anything, the flames grew at every point the water hit, almost as if the firefighters were spraying gasoline instead of water. As the marshal screamed at his men to aim lower to the base of the flames, David thought he saw something unusual.

"Keep spraying on the north side of the building!" he shouted at the marshal, "I think I see something on the south side. I'll go in closer and take a look."

After being waved on, he moved in for a better view, positioning himself by the kitchen window. Still closed, its panes were doing a decent job keeping the flames inside. He got as close as he could to the window itself and tried to see through the thick smoke blocking the inside of the house.

What he saw made him fall back on his ass before scrambling back to the perimeter. The roar of the flames and the shouting of the firefighters made it difficult to communicate, but he was able to drag the marshal back from the crowd.

"You're not going to put that fire out with water," he explained, "It's a magical fire."

The fire marshal gaped at him. "How the hell can you possibly know it's a magical fire?"

David pointed back at the house. "Your hoses aren't putting it out, and it grows whenever anyone approaches. The figure inside is running back and forth in front of the window instead of reaching out for help. Last but not least, the fire inside is coming from a giant cauldron on the floor and it's green at the source. This is not a normal fire and you won't put it out the normal way."

"So what can we do?"

"I'll try to get a hold of Blue. She should be able to help put it out," David explained.

A lone figure in the woods just beyond the tree line watched as he moved off to the side and pulled out his phone. "Nicely done, shepherd," Maleficent murmured before teleporting herself back to Rumple's cabin. The first phase of his plan was under way, but with her added wrinkle of a non-destructive fire that wouldn't automatically cast her as a villain in her new home.

David cursed as he pulled his phone away from his ear.

No answer.

Less than no answer, the call ended in a half-ring before going to voice mail. He hadn't been in this world long, but even he had enough experience to know that Blue had sent his call to voice mail on purpose. Without the time to pursue the issue any farther, and with Rumple gone and his daughter under the Sleeping Curse, David knew there was only one option.

With a wince, he dialed another number in his phone.

* * *

"Do you mind telling me why you had to summon me away from your daughter's bedside for a simple house fire, David?" Regina snarled as she appeared in front of him in a cloud of smoke.

Too startled at her sudden appearance, the fire marshal could do nothing but bow deeply to his Queen.

The Deputy pointed to the house behind them. "It's a magical fire. We can't put it out, but it's also not destroying the house. There was a phantom person in an upstairs window calling for help, but I figured it wasn't real when they never came to the window. There's a cauldron inside powering the flames, which are green around their base before appearing normal as they spread out."

Regina's eyebrows had steadily risen throughout his explanation. "Perhaps I've been too critical of you in the past, Deputy. Nice work," she complimented. Ignoring the cheeky grin that made her heart hurt at how much it reminded her of Emma's identical expression, she turned to the house. "Green tinted, you said?"

"That's what I saw," confirmed David.

Setting her jaw, Regina turned back to the house. She raised her hands and called on her magic, sending a pulse of purple energy toward the house. The effort rocked her back on her heels, but she remained standing. The fire sputtered and sparked, but eventually the house cleared. The firefighters rushed in, kicking the front door open as they went.

Silence reigned around the house for the better part of ten minutes before the marshal called them in, voice inflecting upward at the end as if he was asking them a question instead of calling them inside a fire scene. When David and Regina got inside, their own eyes grew the size of dinner plates.

The house was untouched. If he hadn't been standing outside watching the conflagration, he would never have believed the house was on fire. "Did your magic restore this at all?" he asked the Mayor.

"Not even the slightest," she retorted, staring around in just as much wonder. "All I did was cast a canceling spell, shutting off any magical power source in the vicinity. Where was the source?"

"Oh yeah. In the kitchen," David answered, nodding for her to lead the way.

Once in the kitchen, they found the fire marshal staring at the cauldron. Rather than the generic, rusted metal pot he expected, one side of the cauldron bore a stylized initial M with two curved horns jutting up from the top of the letter. "Maleficent," Regina murmured.

"She set fire to this house?" asked the fire marshal, "I thought she was dead! The Savior killed her before the Curse broke, right?"

"She was," Regina confirmed, "but she was recently…brought back, shall we say? This cauldron is a message."

"What's Maleficent telling you with a signed cauldron?" David wondered.

Regina gestured around them. "A house aflame with no damage. I expect the fire itself acted strangely?"

The marshal cut off David's comment. "It did, your majesty. Whenever any of us tried to approach, the flames grew as if they were powered by a gas furnace from this world. When we receded, so did the fire."

"Thank you, Marshal," Regina acknowledged before turning back to David with a smirk. "Do you see? She could have just burned the house to the ground with a breath. She could have triggered it to hurt as many people as she could. Instead she made it almost impossible for anyone to get in, left the house in place, and made it so that I could break her enchantment without breaking a sweat. She was telling us that she did it all on purpose."

"But what would she gain by any of this?"

Before answering his query, Regina turned to the gaping fire marshal. "What I have to tell the Deputy is for his ears only. I need you to go outside and get your men back to the fire station," she instructed in a low, commanding voice.

With a nod, he turned on his heel and was gone.

Alone again, Regina turned back to David once more. "Maleficent visited the mansion the other night. Rumplestiltskin did indeed bring her back, but there's more to the story. The Dark One has enlisted Ursula and Cruella along with Maleficent to help find the Author to Henry's magical storybook, which they have done, release him, which they have also done, and find him the enchanted ink, which they have yet to do."

"Why do they need enchanted ink?" David asked, not liking the growing feeling of dread settling in his stomach at Regina's description.

Regina grimaced. "Rumple wants to use the Author to write happy endings for the Villains, hence his use of Cruella, Ursula, and Maleficent. The ink needed for the Author to write in his magical book has to be enchanted with a very special kind of magic," she trailed off, not wanting to tell him what was needed, but knowing that he had to understand what was at stake, "They need tainted blood from a powerful light magic user. A light magic user who has darkened their heart with words or actions."

He remained still, watching her as his expression filled with dread.

"They need Emma's blood," she finished, grimacing at the words coming out of her mouth as she did so. "This was a warning from Maleficent. Whatever Rumple's endgame is, it's about to begin."

David's mouth opened, but his reply was lost in the ringing of his cell phone. "Deputy Nolan," he bit off through gritted teeth. "I'll be right there."

Hanging up the phone, he nodded to Regina. "Looks like you were right. There's a disturbance at the docks, but no one seems to be in any particular danger."

Regina looked stricken. "Go deal with the docks. If you need magic, call, but my suspicion is that you won't. I'll be back at the mansion strengthening the protection wards I cast earlier."

"Understood," he acknowledged. "And Regina?" he interjected as she raised her hands to teleport, "take care of yourself afterward. We're going to need you to protect Emma. None of the rest of us stands a chance against the Dark One," he pleaded.

She returned his nod before vanishing.

David swallowed heavily and made his way out of the house, instructing the remaining firemen to gather the rest of their crew and move to the docks.

* * *

"David! Regina called me and told me about what happened at the farm house. Did you get the problem with the docks taken care of?" Snow asked David as he hung up his jacket in the loft's entryway.

Heaving a sigh as he was finally able to relax after a brutal day, he wrapped his arms around his wife and reveled in the familiar sensations of her scent and strength. Even if it was just for a moment, it was worth forgetting his worries in Snow's embrace. She always had a way of grounding him whenever the current crisis got out of hand.

After one brief, blissful moment, he pulled back and gave her a chase kiss. "God, I missed you."

"It's only been half a day," she grinned, "Was it that bad?"

"Not really. I mean, after Regina explained what happened at the farmhouse, we were able to respond to the high waves battering the docks more carefully. It was still touch-and-go for a while, but the entire fire department and any able-bodied citizen we could find were able to get enough sandbags filled and placed to keep the waters at bay. After a while Ursula – if she was indeed behind it – let the waves die off on their own. But after that we had to go back out into the forest. A bunch of animals were stampeding toward town," answered David, still hugging her.

"Oh my God! How'd you fix that one? Did Blue help you at all with any magic to override Ursula and Cruella's spells?"

"No, see that's the weird part. Blue never answered her phone the entire day, and I must have tried calling her a couple dozen times. We ended up digging a firebreak and lighting a controlled blaze. Even in their magic-fueled mania they weren't going to charge a wall of fire. As we're assuming, Cruella let the enchantment dissipate, and we put out the fire and everything back to normal. A good thing, too, because by that point our men were ready to drop."

Snow withdrew from the embrace, not noticing the disappointment that flashed across his face as she looked around, trying to put the pieces together. "Every one of these events has one thing in common. They overextended our first responders and taxed our ability to respond to a crisis. Without Blue's help, we could have been in serious trouble. Regina told me what she thinks the causes of these events were, and I have to agree with her since no one got seriously hurt. We just lost our ability to respond capably to any crisis for a few days."

"So the theory the two of you are working on is that the Dark One was making sure we couldn't handle whatever…" David trailed off as Snow's phone rang.

"Regina? What's wrong?" His wife answered the call and immediately turned as pale as her namesake. Her horrified gasp and the dropping phone were more than enough confirmation that another crisis had hit, but this time it was most likely Rumple's turn.

She turned to him with glistening eyes. With a tremor in her voice, she whispered what Regina had called to tell them: "Henry's gone."

* * *

 **A/N: I regret nothing! I love cliffhangers :) thoughts? Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcomed!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thank you everyone! Your response to the last chapter was outstanding. It really helps to hear such great things about my story.  
**

 **I know a lot of people have been asking for Regina to get her act together and kiss Emma awake already, but for someone with emotional walls as high as hers, it's going to be a process. We'll get there, I promise!**

 **Laurathechef proved as an amazing of a beta as ever, and as always I claim no ownership of the show, characters, settings, or plots. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Henry's gone?" David repeated, trying to clarify what he'd just heard.

"Regina said he never showed up after school," explained Snow, sliding her phone back into her pocket as she ran to the kitchen where she kept her purse, "She sounded frantic."

With a grunt, David reached for his jacket. "It's Regina and Henry. She's always going to be frantic. I'll get in my cruiser and start with the school, working my way out to the town line."

"Good thinking. I'll get Ruby and start her searching from the mansion in the same way," Snow replied, packing her purse and heading for the door.

David stared after his wife, frozen in place by her sudden burst of energy before shaking his head and following her. Grabbing his keys, he bounded down the loft's stairs and out the door. He ran to the cruiser that had taken up residence in the street front parking ever since they had taken to keeping the town running while Regina worked on waking Emma.

If ever there was a situation that called for flipping the siren, it was searching for his lost grandson in a town of magical threats. The normally tranquil Storybrooke streets echoed with the blaring. The few cars he encountered on the road hurried as best they could on the snowy, slippery roads to get out of his way. Winters in Maine were a challenge for someone whose profession involved a lot of driving, occasionally in a hurry. He swiveled his head from side to side, checking out the roads, sidewalks, and areas between buildings on his route to the school. The leaden sky, grey pavement, and buildings all seemed to blend together, making his search for a brown-haired boy with a dark jacket much harder.

Not for the first time did he yearn for a peaceful existence. Just a few months without another threat or villain putting their existence into danger. He supposed it was the shepherd in him but the thought of a quiet life in Storybrooke caring for his family, strange as it was.

Caring for Emma as a father was always strange, given that the frozen time during the first curse meant that she was essentially a year older than they were and had to grow up faster in a world that was far harsher than the Enchanted Forest, even with all its amenities. There was never a day when he didn't regret making her grow up without them.

For the longest time they'd blamed Regina for the Dark Curse, but time and events had shown them all who the real mastermind behind it all was. After the trigger, Neverland, Zelena, and the Snow Queen, things were different. Regina was family. With all the times they'd stood shoulder to shoulder and fought for Storybrooke, she was a part of the family in more ways than merely being his grandson's adoptive mother.

Then there was Henry: proof positive that Regina had turned good long before the Dark Curse broke. The Evil Queen could never have raised a boy that conscientious, smart, and kind-hearted. With the age anomaly, there were times he felt more like an uncle to the boy than his grandfather. Knowing that he was missing now drove David in a way that…sadly felt very familiar, given that his daughter and son had both been threatened in the past.

David's train of thought left the tracks as he saw someone walking in the same direction as he was headed. He carefully pressed the brake, not wanting to skid the cruiser off the road and cause any mayhem. The hair and clothes made the person look just like Henry, but something was off.

It was the way he was walking, David realized with a start. Henry had so much energy that he constantly bounced when he walked. This child, while a near-twin from his vantage point, was almost dragging himself along with a broken gait.

Parking the cruiser, he closed the door behind him and moved with caution toward the child. It looked just like Henry, but something about this situation was putting his nerves on edge. "Henry?" he asked.

The child turned around and David felt a rush of adrenaline-fueled fear shoot up his spine. The face was Henry's, but nothing else about the figure was his grandson. Instead of his usually shining eyes, they were blank, pure white. Pale skin that gave the figure even more of a ghostly appearance.

"Henry?" he asked, his voice cracking in a way that he hadn't felt since puberty.

A sickening grin, almost a grimace, broke across the…person's face. "Not Henry, dearie. Not yet, anyway. Keep searching! Follow the trail like a good little doggie and it will lead you to your quarry. Give up the Savior and save the whole town," he teased in a sing-song voice far too eerily reminiscent of Rumpelstiltskin. With a wiggle of its fingers, the figure giggled and vanished.

"What the hell was that?"

Then his phone started ringing.

* * *

Snow shook her head as she pushed Neal's stroller away from Granny's. The weather had warmed a bit with the emergence of the sun, so she wanted to get him some fresh air instead of loading him into and out of a car. As they moved up Main Street, her mind was as divided as her heart. As a mother she was on the alert for any signs of distress from the infant carrier car seat snapped into the stroller – she had the brief thought that the available technology in this world made being a parent far easier than in the Enchanted Forest (unless one was royalty with scores of servants to see to the children) – but as a grandmother, she was scanning for signs of her grandson.

Henry wasn't supposed to have left the mansion today. As more signs gathered that the three witches were up to something, they'd started keeping him closer to the mansion where Regina could protect him. He was Regina's weak spot.

She puzzled over how the child could have gone missing until she turned the corner and saw him. At least, saw the back of him. He was walking away from her toward the seashore. Pushing the stroller faster, Snow started following him.

As she picked up speed so did he, to the point where the stroller wheels were wobbling as she ran. "Henry?" She called as she struggled to keep up with the child.

Before she could go much farther, he turned on her. Snow stepped back in shock at the lack of color in the boy's eyes. It was almost like one of the horror movies that Charming had gotten her to watch one night. The effect was even worse on someone who looked like her grandson than it was in a movie. "Why are you chasing me so fast, dearie?" he cackled, sending shivers down her spine.

"Henry? What's going on?" she asked, hearing the tremor in her own voice even as she moved the stroller behind her.

He giggled, a high-pitched cackle entirely too reminiscent of his grandfather's more monstrous side. "You're chasing an illusion, Snow White. A ghost. But who knows what you'll find while you keep chasing your own tail, hmmm?"

"Chasing my tail?" She tried to figure out what the hideous mockery of Henry was trying to tell her, but before her thoughts progressed too far, a terrifying giggle sounded from the boy.

"There isn't much time left, dearie! Give up the Savior to save the town," he chortled in an otherworldly voice before vanishing into a puff of scarlet smoke.

"Give up the Savior?" breathed Snow, horror filling her. She grabbed at her cell phone and dialed David, trying not to drop the device with her shaking fingers.

* * *

It was the same all over Storybrooke.

The Sheriff's Office was flooded with calls from every corner of town. Everywhere residents were seeing a version of Henry shuffling along before regarding them with his empty eyes and making the same threat. He'd been seen at the docks, by his old castle on the shore, the school, the woods, Granny's, up and down Main Street, and even out by the convent. The fairies were quite distressed at the implications.

As soon as she'd learned that Henry was gone from his room, Regina used her favorite mirror to open up a communication channel to Maleficent's room. "Yes, dear?" Greeted the older woman, as she rose from her desk.

"My son is missing. I have no idea how or when, but I do know who," Regina explained, abandoning a greeting in her worry.

"The Dark One is seriously coming after you," Maleficent acknowledged.

Nodding, Regina started pacing the room, puzzling out the sequence of events. "I agree. The trouble is that I know the Savior is his ultimate goal, and God only knows what havoc he will wreak on this town with the Author under his thumb. I'm the only one who can protect Emma from here."

"What do you need from me?" asked the blonde, knowing Regina wouldn't have turned to her unless she needed someone equally as powerful.

"You're the only other magic user in this town strong enough to challenge the Dark One. I know there's nothing you owe me with our history, but if you would be kind enough to use your dragon form to fly over the outskirts of the town to see if you can find any sign of him, I would consider it a personal favor. I will owe you," Regina finished, maintaining her eye contact with her old friend to show how sincere her promise was.

Maleficent quirked her head to one side as she regarded her old friend. "I'll help you out. We'll discuss my end of this deal after all this mess is over."

Without another word, she teleported out of the room and Regina could hear the dragon's roar echoing across Storybrooke.

* * *

" _What the hell do you mean 'stay home while we look for your son,'? He's my goddamned son! If you lose him to the Dark One I will personally rip out your heart and use you as my fucking marionette! Pinocchio would be jealous of how you will be dancing for me for all eternity if so much as one hair is out of place on his head!"_

Snow winced at the volume of the screech in her ear. Regina was beside herself, threatening to come out of the mansion to look for Henry herself. "Calm down, Regina. Rumpelstiltskin won't hurt Henry. We think he's somewhere out of the way and safe while Rumple projects his image around town. We need you at the mansion protecting Emma. You're our best hope to keep her safe while we find Henry."

It took a lot of effort and more placating words than she'd ever spoken to Regina, but eventually they got her calmed down. Reminding her that she could use her mirrors and any reflective surface around the town to scan for her son while she stood guard over Emma helped convince the frantic woman.

It was Ruby that eventually found the boy hunkered down in a room at Granny's of all places. Only her highly-sensitive nose could detect his scent through all the overpowering smells of Granny's kitchen, but once she had the scent, everyone who had been out looking for the boy and had made their way back to Granny's for a quick bite and a fast break rushed around after the waitress. He was in a room sealed with a magical barrier, but it was a weak one that Blue was able to break easily.

That concerned them all. If it was a magical barrier that required a light magic user to break but didn't take much strength, it could only mean that Rumpelstiltskin wanted light magic users occupied with a problem and away from the mansion. That realization galvanized the entire group. Snow carefully deposited Neal with a waiting Granny who waved off her apologies and settled down with her favorite resident in all of Storybrooke. As one Snow, Charming, Blue, Ruby, Maleficent, Hook, Tink, and Henry rushed out of Granny's toward the Mayor's mansion.

What they saw when they arrived, turned the blood in their veins to ice.

* * *

Dozens of Dark Ones ringed the property. Perfect copies of Rumpelstiltskin, exactly the same way he'd copied Henry and sent him around the town. Snow and Charming exchanged a horrified glance at the sight of more than thirty – which they could see – Dark Ones spread out around the mansion, chanting in a tongue that none of them understood.

"Get away from the house!" David bellowed, drawing both his sword and his department weapon and charging at the nearest. The rest of the group followed suit, drawing from his bravery. With a wave of their hands, the ring of clones sent an energy pulse backward without even looking. The group flew back, landing with a thud in a semicircle.

"Ah, ah, ah! No, no, no! Naughty!" the clones cackled, "Mustn't disturb us! We're in the middle of something much too important! Stay and watch!"

They cast another spell, freezing the group in place. They watched as the Dark One copies raised their hands in unison. A pulse of reddish-tinged light shot from one to the next, ringing the entire mansion's grounds. From there, the light beamed up from their hands, attacking Regina's protection spell.

It didn't take long. The dome shimmered and shook, valiantly trying to hold itself up against the onslaught, but it was a vain effort. With one final push, the dome shattered, evaporating into the night sky like a weird reverse Aurora Borealis.

The clones gave one final giggle before they began to vanish. One by one they disappeared until the group of heroes were alone again. The freezing spell released them as the last copy winked out of sight.

Charming looked at Snow and then around at the rest. "Everybody okay? Let's move!" He led the way, carrying his weapons at the ready to handle any threat.

* * *

When they made it inside the mansion, chaos reigned. Copies of the Dark One were running throughout the house, breaking vases, ripping decorations off the walls, and shattering mirrors wherever they could be found. David started lunging with his sword, Hook joining him with his own as well as his actual hook, at any of the clones they came across. Whenever each made an impact, the clone disappeared in a puff of scarlet smoke. Before long the main floor was clear, though each of those present were looking around with wide eyes, panting from the adrenaline.

Snow took charge, delegating an area of the house for everyone. "Guard the back entrance, Ruby! Maleficent, can you set up a protection ward on the back door and then act as the first line of magical defense?"

"You're sending the dog to guard the back door?" the waitress snarled as she ran through the kitchen.

"Never would have thought to see myself fighting alongside the heroes," chuckled the older woman. "The back door will be protected against everyone and everything that might try to come through, light or dark magic. I'll handle everything, dear."

Without missing a beat, Snow kept dispensing orders. "Blue and Henry, can you do the same to the front door? I know Rumpelstiltskin has broken through the barrier, but slowing down any surprises he may have hidden outside might buy us the few seconds we need."

The fairy responded to her Queen's command with all the deference that she did in the Enchanted Forest, and ran off with Henry without another word.

Charming took his turn. "Hook and Tink: stay on the main level as backup. If you put yourselves in the kitchen or living room, you should be able to move to any entrance as needed."

Hook nodded. "Aye, mate. Count on us."

David and Snow ran toward the stairs, making their way to the second floor just in time to see a very solid-looking Dark One slip through door to the extra bedroom where Regina had been guarding Emma.

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 **A/N: We're almost there! The last two chapters just came back from my beta, so I'll be posting a bit more frequently on this one. Thank you for your amazing support. Reviews are always welcome!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thank you everyone! :) I'm so glad you're all enjoying this story of mine. Part 2 is almost at an end, so I hope the ramp-up of the action continues to meet with your approval. This part is finished, and I'm in the process of outlining Part 3: The Hero's Way Home.  
**

 **Laurathechef worked magic on my chapter, as always. I claim no ownership of the show, characters, settings, or plot. any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.**

 **Enjoy!**

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Regina knew exactly when the barrier spell shattered into nothingness. It was impossible not to, as so much of her magic went into creating the protection; that when it was broken it felt like she'd had the wind knocked out of her.

The Dark One was coming.

She'd been putting up protections around the room designed to keep dark magic users at bay, but she had a sinking feeling that it was all a waste. Her last effort, the one she expended most of her energy setting up, was a barrier spell around Emma.

Regina snorted at the irony. They'd spent so long trying to get Emma out of her own barrier spell and now she was putting a new one right back up around the other woman, even though it wasn't likely to do much good. A relatively new light magic user had almost no chance at casting any spell that could slow him down, much less stop him, but she had to try everything possible. Emma deserved that much.

Emma.

Regina paused in her efforts, looking down at the slumbering Savior. The idea that Emma considered her important enough to her that Regina might be able to wake her from a sleeping curse – Regina still had trouble putting the words 'True Love' together when it came to her situation with Emma – was earth-shaking.

She having feelings for Emma wasn't crazy. The blonde was a remarkable woman. No one else stood up to her and defended her with such vehemence. She had phenomenal reserves of inner strength, having grown up too fast, becoming an adult in an unforgiving world when most children enjoyed the love and support of stable homes. Flinging herself into any challenge, whether it was becoming a true mother to Henry or taking on the mantle of her fated title in the eyes of the townspeople, Emma never backed down from anything or anyone.

Physically…Regina's gaze traced up and down Emma's body, feeling a stab of guilt at her shameless ogling. The woman was a remarkable physical specimen. Athletic and toned – except for the weight loss from the past few months where she must have been nearly starving herself or running herself into the ground – she was magnificent. It was clichéd, but her hair was like some of Rumpelstiltskin spun gold. Green eyes that could be as stormy as Zelena's pendant or as tranquil as Storybrooke's harbor on a clear day, Emma's eyes were a study in and of themselves.

There was no reason Regina could find to not be drawn to the blonde, but imagining that Emma could love her in return? That was laughable.

She was a monster.

The number of corpses, burned villages, ruined lives, and broken dreams that lay shattered in her wake gave lie to any sense of self other than that. There was no earthly reason for Emma to have those kinds of feelings for her.

And yet…

No one had ever stepped up and defended her more than the blonde. Even when there was no reason to, when everyone got their memories back after the first curse broke and the town marched for the blood of the woman who kept Emma from her parents, tried to kill them all, and cursed them to another realm, Emma still stood up for her. She told off the mob, got them to back down, and stood up in front of her like the white knight she should have been, would have been in the Enchanted Forest.

At first she was sure Emma's ferocity had been because she was Henry's adoptive mother, but the amount of times that the younger woman had forced her way into Regina's carefully ordered existence, maintaining a presence that was at first annoying, at times miraculous, and always unpredictable. Almost five years in, few people still ran toward Regina when the proverbial shit hit the fan – she cursed the blonde for her momentary lapse in her usual poise at the use of the vulgarity – but Emma always did.

Maybe…

Maybe those looks, that effort and time, maybe it all meant something.

Maybe…

She sat down in the chair across from Emma's bed and regarded the blonde. "You might think you're in love with me, and I just realized how strongly I feel about you, but what if it doesn't mean anything? What if you just think you feel that way? What am I supposed to do with these feelings? You're going to realize how you deserve better and where will that leave me? What am I going to do with you, Emma Swan?" she murmured.

Even if Emma had been able to answer, the door bursting open would have interrupted her. Regina felt the darkness as the energy in the room shifted. Knowing it wasn't Snow or Charming, she sent a blast of light magic energy intended to stun and incapacitate a dark magic user, but Rumpelstiltskin merely waved it off like brushing away a fly.

"Oh no, dearie, don't get up on my account," he hissed, casting a spell that caused vines to emerge from the wall.

Taken by surprise at his entrance, Regina felt their cold strength slithering around her arms and legs before her own magic, drained as it was, could rise to her defense. Restrained to the chair, she snarled at the imp. "What the hell are you doing here, Rumple?"

"I would have thought that would have been obvious, Regina," he growled, "I'm here for the Savior's blood. Tainted Savior blood will provide the last ingredient I need for the Author's enchanted ink. Once I have that, he will have his ability to write again, and I will have a whole slew of happy endings."

Regina fought against her bonds, but having expended as much magical energy as she had over the last several hours, she was nearly powerless. "You won't get the Savior," she snarled.

"See that's where you're mistaken," smirked the Dark One, "I don't need to _get_ her. I just need some of her blood. Then I'll have everything I've ever wanted."

Noticing Regina's struggles, his mocking laughter intensified, pacing in front of her like a James Bond villain. "You're weak, Regina. Spending far too much time around the heroes these days. They've been filling your head with all their nonsense about love conquering all, and where has it gotten you?" His voice turned to a hiss as he stopped pacing and moved directly in front of her, leaning forward and getting right in her face. "Nowhere, that's where. Love. Is. Weakness. Your mother learned that lesson early on, but it seems the…apple, if you will…fell too far from that particular tree."

Feeling her magic trying to come back, Regina gave up trying to find a magical way out of her bonds. "We will find a way to stop you!"

That brought out the high-pitched Rumpelstiltskin giggle she knew and hated. "Who? You and the wonderful Charming's? You and I both know they couldn't stand up to either of us."

Just as Regina opened her mouth to reply, the door burst open and said Charming's followed. In the midst of trying to free herself from bonds both magical and physical, she couldn't stop the snort at the sight of David brandishing his pistol and Snow her crossbow, as if projectile weapons would do any damage to a magical being as powerful as the Dark One.

Without missing a beat, Rumpelstiltskin blasted them with a wave of magic, freezing them in mid-stride. "See? They can't do anything to help you. They can't even help their own daughter who they love so dearly. You have all failed. Love is weakness. Learn that lesson."

"You won't win. Villains don't get happy endings, remember?" Regina took perverse delight n how fast the smirk wiped off his face at her reminder of his famous saying.

"Look at them over there, your majesty," he added, needling her with the reminder of her former life, "Frozen. Unable to do anything. Their daughter will be the means through which I finally do get my happy ending. All the villains will, except those backstabbing Ladies of Darkness. I'll take care of them once and for all. And who knows? I might even have the Author write Emma back into existence. She's my son's love and my grandson's birth mother, after all."

Regina had a flashback to the moment she stood outside the stables, watching her mother crush Daniel's heart into dust while she stood by, powerless to stop the murder. She couldn't fight for her first love, but damned if she wasn't going to fight for her Tru…for Emma, she corrected in her mind. _Not this time._ She heard Daniel's voice in her mind from their last moments together at the stables. _Then love again._

As Regina fumed, she felt her magic beginning to tingle through her hands and fingers, fighting to explode out of her and shatter her bonds. Rumple's spell was strong but all magic had its limits. There was a strong pulse as he leaned in to her once more. "Love. Is. Weakness."

"No. It's strength," Regina shot back, leaning as far back as she could in the chair before lunging her upper body forward with all her might just as her magic surged out from her hands.

It was a move she'd seen in any number of bad action movies that Henry had begged her to watch as a child, but its effectiveness was none less for its clichéd nature.

The crown of her forehead collided at precisely the right angle on Rumpelstiltskin nose, shattering it in a spray of blood that fortunately missed her, even though it landed on her carpet. Her magic finally broke the restraints, aided by his surprise at her physical attack. In all their time together, even when he riled her up enough to turn on him, she'd never struck him physically. A smaller woman, without magic she was nearly defenseless, so she'd concentrated her power into her magic, which he counted on, being infinitely more powerful.

The surprise of the move worked in her favor. His magic receded enough to allow her to break free. Betrayal flashed through his eyes as he healed the injury. "You'll pay for that," he growled.

"I've been waiting for you, Dark One," she snarled back, "The circle is now complete. When I left you in the Enchanted Forest, I was but the learner. Now I am the master." Snow and Charming were still frozen but Regina would have sworn she saw their eyebrows rise up at her quote. Darth Vader was always her favorite Star Wars character. For some reason his story of descent and redemption spoke to her, but Henry would forever rue missing her use one of his most famous lines.

Rumpelstiltskin quirked his head at the remark, but shook it off with a blast of magic. She recognized the spell in time – it was one he'd taught her long ago designed to sap the magical energy of an opponent. A simple counter spell deflected the wave and she was safe.

Thus began a magical confrontation that would forever be recounted as the Battle of Storybrooke. More than Zelena, more than Ingrid, more than Pan's botched curse attempt, the fight between former pupil and master, former Queen and current Dark One, in her mansion, under the frozen gaze of Snow White and Prince Charming, with the Savior still under her cursed sleep as the prize, had it all.

Spell and counter spell, attack and defense, they went back and forth. At one point Rumple tried summoning the entire contents of her cutlery drawer, cleaver included, into a flying cloud of death, but her magic ripped the door off the armoire in the room to block the attack. It was her first fight of its kind, more focused on defense and wearing down the enemy than offensive attacks. Protecting Emma was her only thought

What she hadn't counted on was how fast she was wearing down. The Dark One's strength was still far greater than her own, and Regina felt her energies – already depleted from the useless barriers she'd erected before the attack – were rapidly waning. Every time Rumple blasted her with more magic, she grew more fatigued. Each blow took more to recover from, and he moved closer and closer to Emma's bed.

With a shout of rage, she slapped her hands together, summoning what little strength she had left into a blast of pure magic intended to send Rumple flying through the wall behind him, but he merely twitched his hands and his counter spell sent her attack flowing around him like water around a rock.

"Enough of this nonsense," he sneered as he withdrew a knife with a wicked curved blade from its sheathe, "Time to get my happy ending. I've changed my mind about the Savior, too. My grandson will just have to remember her as a fallen hero."

Regina, doubled over and gasping for breath as her latest spell failed, could only watch with growing despair as he approached. When the Dark One stood by Emma's bed, she abandoned all pretense of using magic to defeat him, and lunged for his torso, trying to injure him physically. He cackled, sending her across the room and pinning her to the wall. Once more the evil restraints slithered out to hold her in place.

"You're going to want to watch this, dearie," he hissed as he turned to Emma, "I'm going to do what you once promised and end Miss Swan." Turning fully, the Dark One raised his hands and shot out a stream of magic. He grunted with the effort, finding the spell stronger than expected, but far too quickly the final defense around Emma was gone.

As he advanced, blade out, Regina watched her own happy ending about to be destroyed. It was an especially cruel irony that when she had finally accepted her own feelings about Emma, the blonde was about to be killed like a ritual sacrifice. Willing to sacrifice herself to save another person, she forced her body to summon every last ounce of magic it still held. Her vision became tinged with white as her entire being tingled in the same way as a limb that had fallen asleep. Closing her eyes, Regina felt that energy seeping out of her limbs and into the wall, forcing the tentacles back. With a primal roar, she made one last, desperate charge.

As twin fireballs shot across the room at him, Rumpelstiltskin turned back to her. For one brief moment she thought she saw pure fear in his eyes. With no time left, he turned and stabbed the dagger deep into Emma's side.

Time stood still.

Three people, two frozen by magic and one drained by expending all of her own, watched in horror as Emma's lifeblood flowed out of the wound. The cursed sleep prevented her from reacting physically, but she was losing what little color her skin once held.

Failed, Regina fell to the floor as the Dark One wrenched the blade free of its victim and disappeared in a cloud of scarlet smoke a fraction of a second before he would have been incinerated. His retreat ended all the magic he'd used in the area, freeing Snow and Charming from the freezing spell.

Three voices cried out as one, howling in despair.

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 **A/N: Thoughts? Reviews and constructive criticism make writers happy.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I know it was cruel to leave the last chapter on that kind of a cliffhanger, so to make up for it, here's the last chapter posted early :) I also had a brutal day today so I wanted to finish this off. It's been a wild ride, and I want to thank each and every one of you for being here with me.  
**

 **Laurathechef was an awesome beta as usual. I claim no ownership of the show, characters, places, or settings, and any resemblances to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

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"EMMA!"

Twin screams from Snow and Charming echoed in Regina's ears as she stared at the blonde in horror. Blood flowed from the jagged wound. The Dark One must have sawed through the tender flesh of her side, as it seemed the cut ran from her waist to her ribs. Shaking her head against the fatigue clawing blackly at the edges of her vision, she forced herself to remain conscious as she stared at the wounded woman.

Regina was paralyzed. The sight of Emma's lifeblood flowing out of her side, the idea that she was bleeding to death right in front of her, was enough to freeze her in her tracks. This wasn't just some random stabbing victim, left for dead on the mud tracks that passed for roads in the Enchanted Forest by a band of brigands. This wasn't even some random enemy soldier on the battlefield. This was her potential True Love. The amount of death she'd seen and caused in her life should have insulated her against the sight, but…

But this was Emma.

No one since Daniel awakened her heart's potential to love had burrowed so deeply into Regina's world, into her everyday existence. There was no one else that she enjoyed bantering with more, no one who she wanted standing by her side in a fight against the latest threat to Storybrooke's idyllic existence more, no one who she wanted taking care of their son more.

Emma couldn't die at the hands of a malicious wizard. That wasn't how their story was supposed to end.

Awareness of the two people in the room with her slowly made its way back into her consciousness. The sensation was similar to when she'd taken Henry to the beach one summer, how she couldn't hear him when she was submerged in the sea but upon surfacing her ears gradually cleared. Snow was shouting something at David, who was doing his best to respond.

"…Call 911!"

"I am 911!"

"Then call the hospital directly and get them to send an ambulance!"

"She might not last that long," Regina heard herself saying, interrupting the Charmings.

They stopped to stare at her. "I'm serious. Look at where the wound is. Rumple must have severed arteries connected to some of her…" Regina gulped, "…her vital organs. She might not last that long unless we do something here."

"Can't you heal her, Regina?" Snow pleaded, turning wide eyes back and forth between her daughter and former enemy.

Shaking her head, the older woman started moving towards Emma, correcting a stumble as her leaden legs refused to obey her mind's command. "The fight took too much out of me, especially on top of the prep work. Healing magic is very draining. The best I can do is start cauterizing the wounds with some of my flame. David," she gestured to the Deputy, "Call the hospital like your wife said. Tell them we need an ambulance as fast as they can get one over here or the Savior won't make it." She hated referring to Emma in that way, but it was the title that would get the most results from the average Storybrooke resident.

"Take off your jacket, Snow, and use it as a pad to stop the bleeding. Get your hands on her and put pressure on the wound," Regina instructed her former daughter-in-law, "I'm going to summon what little magic I have left to try to staunch the bleeding."

In the background she heard David's barked orders across his Sheriff's Department emergency radio, followed by a crackled acknowledgement. "Okay, we don't have a lot of time." So saying, she took a deep breath, shook the pinpricks out of her arms as best she could, and forced her magic to bow to her will once more. Very small fireballs appeared in the open palms of her spread hands. As David watched over her shoulder and Snow gasped at the sight, the fireballs turned into snakes of flame, wrapping and wreathing their way around her arms before surrounding the gushing wound. They paused briefly at the skin before a glower from Regina sent them inside Emma's body.

Snow gaped at the flames that didn't burn her as they moved along her own arms, not ready to accept the sight. When they had disappeared and Emma looked slightly less pale and clammy, the three took a collective breath.

"Okay, very slowly and carefully take your hands off the wound site. If my spell was successful, the bleeding should have stopped. She'll still need to go to the hospital how far out was the ambulance, David?"

"They said five minutes," he responded, checking his watch.

"My magic should be able to hold for at least that long," Regina murmured, squeezing her eyes shut against the spreading exhaustion. Saving Emma just might kill her.

"Oh shit," David breathed above her.

Head snapping up at the dread in his voice, Regina took in the sight of Emma's renewed bleeding. "I guess my magic was more drained than I thought," she grunted as she took her turn shoving Snow's jacket back against the bleeding. "Where the hell is that ambulance?"

"We have about two more minutes," David answered.

"No! No! Emma you are not allowed to die like this, do you hear me?" shrieked Regina, not taking her eyes off the increasingly pale blonde. "You cannot leave Henry or your parents this way! You promised you weren't going to run away again!"

Her voice gradually broke from shouted intensity to broken half-sobs. "You can't leave me this way! Not when I just figured it all out! You have to hang on, do you hear me? Whale will fix you up, I promise, and then we can get you woken up, deal with Rumpelstiltskin once and for all, and then move on with our lives. _I love you_ damn it! You do not get to leave me like this!"

Tears were coursing down her face at the thought of finally finding someone she loved, someone she chose to love and was not chosen for her by fate, destiny, or fucking pixie dust.

When two hands landed on her shoulders, Regina jumped at the reminder than she wasn't alone. She'd just confessed her love for the daughter of her once-sworn enemy in said former enemy's presence. After all the horrors that she'd put Snow and Charming through, it was too much to expect them to take this well. She gulped, looking up at Emma's parents.

"It's about damned time," said Snow with a feeble grin.

"We were wondering if you'd ever figure it out," David chimed in.

Regina gaped.

"We've known for a while. When you wouldn't tell us who you saw in her memories, it just confirmed it."

"Wha – I mean, so…" for once Regina was a babbling idiot as all her eloquence fled. She heard the blaring siren of the ambulance gradually growing louder as it approached, cutting off any and all effort at a reply.

"Do it, Regina," Snow urged, "Kiss her and wake her up so they can treat her as any normal patient and not one under a curse."

Her jaw fell open. David gave her a weak smile mirroring his wife's. "We mean it. Wake her up, please."

Shaking her head once again, Regina turned back to the wounded woman as the front door fell open. Her energy was fading fast; never in her life had she expended as much magical energy as she had that day. From the spots starting to flicker in her vision along with her heavy limbs, she figured it wouldn't be long before she passed out, too. Now or never.

"I'm so sorry I'm doing this, Emma, but it might be the only way," she whispered, struggling to straighten up on her knees. Pounding steps and the banging of a stretcher could be heard coming up the stairs. "I'll take the slap you're going to give me when you figure out who it was that kissed you awake every time as the cost of saving your life."

Without another word, she leaned over and pressed her chapped, beaten lips to Emma's.

For the briefest of moments nothing happened. Regina's heart dropped like a rock into her stomach, sure that she had failed and all her hopes for a happy ending were once again destroyed. Then, as the door to the room burst open and David guided the paramedics in, a pulse of colored light radiated from between them, filling the room before bursting across Storybrooke in an exploding wave. Everyone in the immediate vicinity took a deep breath as the weights bearing down on them lessened.

Then it happened.

As the last of Regina's strength finally failed her, Emma's eyes shot open and she sat up in the bed much like Henry did when his own curse was broken. Their eyes connected for a fraction of a heartbeat before Regina collapsed to the floor.

The last thing she heard was Emma's scream of pain as she fell into darkness.

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 **A/N: Thus ends Part 2. The final part of this trilogy, The Hero's Way Home, is under way. I'll begin posting that when I have it finished. I would love to hear what you thought of this chapter and the story as a whole.**

 **Have a great weekend!**


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